Quadrupling net profit is just a cover. What does 51job need to worry about?

According to the quarterly report, 51job’s operating revenue in the second quarter was 828.6 million yuan, down 14% year on year. Among them, the income from online recruitment services decreased by 17.6% year-on-year, and other human resources services decreased by 7.7% year-on-year. The operating profit decreased by 38.7% year on year, and the operating profit margin dropped from 28% in the same period of last year to 20% this year. After the financial report of 51job was released, its net profit increased by 459% year-on-year and 83.58% month on month, which made many people exclaim that old brand enterprises highlight their strength in emergencies and bring people “small surprise”. However, a closer look at the source of profit shows that among the 377 million yuan of net profit, the fair value change of equity brought by investment in Huali University accounts for 56.8 million yuan, and 145 million yuan comes from government subsidies (123 million yuan in the same period last year). No matter where the income comes from, investors can get benefits, but other income such as fair value gains and losses brought by investment and bonds, government subsidies, etc. do not have sustainable and long-term reference value, and can not reflect the real business situation of 51job. < p > < p > only the operating revenue and operating profit that can reflect the long-term operation status of an enterprise can be uncovered. Since 2018, 51job’s operating revenue and operating profit began to decline year-on-year. By 2020, its revenue and operating profit will be greatly reduced due to the impact of the epidemic. < p > < p > compared with 51job, the listed human resources companies include Kerui international, tongdaoliepin and Renrui talents. According to the public data of Kerui international, in the first quarter of 2020, its revenue was 923 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.94%; the operating profit was 32.5902 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.91%, and the year-on-year changes were better than 51job. < / P > < p > even after excluding the impact of the epidemic, according to the year-on-year growth rate of operating revenue and operating profit from 2015 to 2019, 51job’s revenue and operating profit also showed a downward trend (dotted line in the figure). < / P > < p > corresponding to its operation, 51job’s share price showed a downward trend after reaching $114.63/ads on June 6, 2018. As of August 14, 2020, the U.S. stock price was only $65.94/ads. 51job was founded in 1998, along with Zhilian recruitment and China talent network. According to the report released by iResearch in the third quarter of 2011, the market shares of 51job, Zhilian recruitment and chinahr.com were 37.3%, 30.2% and 15.7% respectively. At that time, some analysts pointed out that the tripartite pattern of online recruitment market has lasted for many years and will be maintained in the next few years, which is hard to shake. < / P > < p > with the popularization of the Internet and the development of mobile Internet, the emerging social recruitment platform represented by dajie.com and LinkedIn, the comprehensive information recruitment platform represented by 58 cities, and the headhunting recruitment platform represented by liepin.com all began to develop rapidly after 2010. < p > < p > in 2015, China talent.com, which tried to “respond to changes with constancy”, was acquired by 58 cities. In less than four years, the once thought solid “triangle” structure was broken. Before the acquisition, China talent network was accused of not changing the user experience and use efficiency. It also taught a lesson to other enterprises: in the information age, only active change can survive. < p > < p > although 51job’s revenue mainly came from paper media in the early days of its establishment, as Zhen Ronghui seized the opportunity of the rapid development of the Internet, by 2011, 51job’s efforts for more than ten years were finally transformed into results. The proportion of online recruitment business in total revenue broke 50%, reaching 58.6%, replacing the traditional publication advertising as the main revenue source. < p > < p > through the first World War of online recruitment industry, Zhen Ronghui realized that the long-term development of an enterprise could not be guaranteed only by being a middleman to earn money with poor information. Therefore, in 2015, when 51job.com acquired the new student job search website, 51job also acquired Zhiding online, a business evaluation company, launched a semi headhunting product “worry free elite” for high-end elites, and established cooperation with the talent development association to provide training courses. In 2016, in order to increase vocational education, 51job invested in gaodun online school. < p > < p > thanks to the initiative to expand business, since 2016, although the contribution rate of online recruitment service income remains above 50%, its proportion in the operating income is slowly declining in the fluctuation. < p > < p > in 2016, 51job invested US $120 million in the vertical recruitment platform, obtaining 60% equity of lagouwang. 51job originally planned to use the newly acquired students and the pull hook network of merger and acquisition, together with the worry free elite network and 51m Duoduo, which it hatched, to subdivide the channels of job hunting, so as to better serve both supply and demand sides and expand market share. In an interview with 36 krypton in July this year, Zhen Ronghui said that 51job hopes that foreign investment will not only be financial cooperation, but also produce synergy effect. < p > < p > for example, he said that the freshmen put their limited manpower into technology and products, and then handed the sales to 51job; the sales person in charge of Largo was also sent by 51job. However, in terms of the results, those who had a place in the market before have lost their sense of existence. The so-called synergy effect of 51job has not appeared. In the second transition period, 51job also believes that the discourse power of the talent market is changing to job seekers, so it shifts the focus of human resource service from customers to users. < p > < p > unfortunately, 51job has not realized that only high-end job seekers and scarce talents have more say than enterprises, and the largest group of job seekers is still junior employees and blue collar workers. It was not until more than two years later that 51job changed its strategy and took 2B business as its development core. < p > < p > it can be said that 51job’s second transformation has guaranteed the development trend of channel segmentation and made a diversified strategic layout conducive to the long-term and stable development of the enterprise. However, it chose the wrong direction and failed to achieve the expected synergy effect.

more importantly, in the second transformation plan, make complaints about products, improve the matching accuracy of job seekers and jobs, improve the experience of both sides of the process, and so on, and have not received due attention to the details of the foundation for enterprises. Not long ago, even Tucao was “not even searched by job”. < p > < p > therefore, 51job has not put forward a plan to solve the pain of “job mismatch” and low recruitment efficiency in the recruitment market since 2015, and has not established its core competitiveness. < p > < p > according to the tracking data of iResearch, 51job and Zhilian recruitment still occupy the top two in terms of the number of independent equipment because they have been established for a long time. However, according to the report released by talkingdata in April this year, 51job’s penetration rate on the PC side is not as good as that of Zhaopin recruitment and Liepin, and the monthly work volume on the mobile terminal is lower than that of Zhaopin recruitment and boss direct employment. < / P > < p > during the 2018 World Cup, boss direct employment has rapidly expanded its market share with its brainwashing advertising. It is the representative of the new force of this round of recruitment platform, and has triggered the marketing war of online recruitment platform. 51job, an old brand enterprise, has been forced to increase its investment in marketing. < p > < p > boss direct employment focuses on “looking for a job, talking to the boss”, and the online interactive mode is the first to enable HR and job seekers to communicate online in a timely manner, which significantly shortens the communication time between the two sides and makes a small step in improving the recruitment efficiency. 51job has only recently added the function of online communication, which can be seen from the slow transformation of the giant. < p > < p > as one of the earliest Internet recruitment enterprises, 51job should have the best resources in the industry in terms of enterprise data and job seeker data. However, due to its failure to make good use of it, 51job lost its first mover advantage when big data and AI broke out, and its customers’ satisfaction with the development of big data was not high. The choice of < / P > < p > users is the most realistic. According to the monthly top list of “recruitment and employment” applications released by Yiguan Qianfan in July 2020, the number of direct employed monthly employees of boss is 14.335 million, which is 5.09 million higher than that of 51job. < / P > < p > choose boss direct employment with light asset operation. In terms of big data analysis and AI matching, the product iteration speed is faster, and it will be the next city in the new competition. In this regard, Zhen Ronghui said that before burning money and their former competitors in the market, they were basically burned to death, and 51job went more steadily. When the market is good, it blindly burns money, and when the market is bad, it does not give up investment, so it can go to the present. However, the competition environment is different each time. In this new competition, it remains to be seen whether the asset heavy 51job can still “consume” the emerging platform that belittles assets, and whether Zhen Ronghui’s “stability” can make 51job laugh to the end again remains to be seen. < p > < p > although Zhen Ronghui believes that 51job is “more like a sales company” than an Internet company, 51job is still trying to capture 2B market like other Internet companies. < / P > < p > in addition to providing training, evaluation and personnel outsourcing services for employers with the resources integrated in the early stage, 51job also optimizes the customer structure, strategically abandons customers with low customer price, and takes high customer unit price as the core driving force for future development. < p > < p > due to its early establishment and relatively small competition, 51job’s customers include many large enterprises in China’s top 500. Large enterprises, especially state-owned enterprises, need more guidance and help in human resource service “online”, and they are more inclined to choose a larger and more mature platform for cooperation. < p > < p > if the “one-stop” service process of recruitment, outsourcing and training can be opened up, 51job will face a broader market than online recruitment. < p > < p > from 51job to improve the strategic position of human resources services, and the “to” of Zhen Ronghui C our approach is to strengthen it through investment and acquisition, and we don’t have to do everything ourselves. “In the long-term strategy of 51job, the importance of online recruitment will be less and less. The goal of 51job’s transformation is to become a comprehensive human resource service platform for enterprises. < / P > < p > “since its establishment 22 years ago, we have made a decision: to follow the asset model, have our own sales team, and never act as an agent. The advantage of heavy mode lies in the control, and it is difficult to be subverted in the last mile of service. The last mile experience, firmly grasp the communication between sales and customers, and implement the service provided. For example, training, vocational education. ” < p > < p > 51job has the advantages of mature brand, wide enterprise resources and abundant cash flow, while the emerging platform represented by boss direct employment has the advantages of leading technology and large proportion of high-speed developing Internet or other technology enterprises. 51job starts from service, improves customer experience and increases customer stickiness through comprehensive service; emerging platforms start from the scientific and technological content of service, and carve up the market through service precision and more cutting-edge technology.