TheLadders.com Claims Majority Market Share in the High-End Job Search Space
Executive Job Search Web Site and Electronic Newsletter Saw Sharp Growth Throughout '04
NEW YORK (January 7, 2005) - TheLadders.com, the country's largest online job search engine catering exclusively to the $100k+ job market, today announced that it has captured the majority market share in its space. After just 18-months in operation, the company has claimed 51% of the total market share of Web visits in the high-end job search category*, according to data provided by Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service. The analysis was based on Internet visit patterns to a total of ten high-end, online job search Web sites from July 2003 through December 14, 2004.
Showing its sharpest increase in Web traffic over this past year, TheLadders.com saw its market share of visits grow from just over 6% in January '04 to over 35% in June '04, when it surpassed its closest competitor, then continued upward to its current level of 51%.
Company CEO Marc Cenedella attributes his company's rapid acceptance among job seekers to its focus on the unique needs of the high-end market. "Job seekers in this marketplace want one thing: solid leads they can use to secure a better position. And we deliver far more $100K+ job leads than any of our competitors. Our 51% market share is due to our invention of the best job resource for $100k+ job-seekers ever, and our ability to eliminate unqualified postings before our subscribers even see them."
TheLadders.com business model has been central to its success among high end job seekers. The company has turned the traditional job board model upside-down, deriving revenues from job seekers who pay a monthly subscription fee for premium access to job listings. Employers and recruiters are able to post jobs free of charge. This distinction enables TheLadders.com to keep unqualified job candidates out of the applicant pool and to provide a greater number of pre-screened, high-end job listings than any other source. Each week, TheLadders.com shares over 3,000 $100k+ job listings with its subscribers. The company also maintains a basic job leads newsletter for which it does not charge a fee.
Additionally, TheLadders.com has been designed to cut through the clutter of irrelevant job listings, segmenting the $100k+ job market into four industry-specific categories, each with its own Web site, newsletter and customer service blog. Sales professionals are able to work directly through www.salesladder.com, marketing professionals use www.mktgladder.com, finance professionals log in to www.financeladder.com and human resources/legal/operations professionals enter through www.upladder.com. In providing distinct user experiences for professionals in different industries, the company is able to keep job seekers focused only on those listings that fit their specific areas of expertise. TheLadders.com also operates a site for recruiters, called www.recruitladder.com.
Cenedella founded TheLadders.com in July 2003 after a tenure as Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations, at HotJobs.com, ultimately shepherding that company's sale to Yahoo, Inc. (NASD: YHOO) in 2002. In May 2004 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by award-winning marketing newsletter, MarketingSherpa, which cited TheLadders.com's unique business model as a key to its sustained growth. In November, 2004 the company secured $7.25 million in expansion capital from top private equity firm Matrix Partners.