Simply Hired: A Business Model that is too Simple?

by Sam on May 5, 2007

Simply Hired: A Business Model that is too Simple?

According to Techcrunch, Google is now in talks to acquire SimplyHired.com, a job listing website that works by searching across many websites such as Craigslist and Wetfeet.com and aggregating all the results. Venturebeat also has a first-hand account of the breaking news.

According to these articles, SimplyHired recently raised $13.5M for a $40M post investment valuation from NewsCorp. I find this amazing because it seems the barriers to entry for an aggregating website are so low’ the business model to me seems too simple. What if in a year a new security device comes out capable of blocking these aggregating/scraping sites from accessing their content?

Are sites like Craigslist.com really okay with their content being exploited on other sites? True, SimplyHired does ultimately send the person back to Craigslist.com but still, when your entire business model relies on someone else’s content it seems like a recipe for disaster…at least to me.

Thoughts?

Tagged as: , , ,

  • http://www.simplyhired.com Lucas Mast

    A few corrections…

    Simply Hired does not receive ANY content from Craigslist (all third parties were blocked last year at the request of Craigslist, to which we complied).

    As far as our other partners that we get our 5 million plus jobs from, we DO send the user back to the original site/source of the job listing. We provide this functionality for MySpace, LinkedIn, New York Post and others. It provides a valuable service to their users, enables them to implement the technology required at a very low cost, and drives a significant amount of traffic to the site where the job is listed.

    Additionally, we power job sites on over 1,000 blogs and web publishers, allowing them to have an alternative to Google for making money on their site and providing their users with contextually relevant job listings.

    Suffice it to say that our business model is a bit more complex than you indicate…

  • http://altaide.typepad.com/jacques_froissant_altade/2007/05/simplyhired_rac.html Jacques FROISSANT AltaГѓВЇde

    SimplyHired rachetГѓВ© ? : le recrutement 2.0 intГѓВ©resse Google.

    D’aprГѓВЁs AlarmClock et Techcrunch, Google discuterait du rachat de Simplyhired, le moteur de recherche d’offres d’emploi amГѓВ©ricain.Que Google montre aujourd’hui un vГѓВ©ritable appГѓВ©tit autour du vertical search est une excellente nouvelle pour tous…

  • http://www.registryheal.com Mehmet Onatli

    Just goes to show there's always an exception to every rule, even the rule that simple is best

  • http://www.leveragingideas.com Sam Huleatt

    Absolutely. Simplicity rules :)

  • http://www.discountdressesonline.com/ Plus Size Dresses

    Well if google interested in them they have to be worth money and make it. But ya I don't like having my life in someone hands either.

  • http://www.salon-collective.co.uk hair care products

    What was it that Einstein said about simplicity?

  • http://bistrocatering.com Portland Catering

    simplyhired.com is reall a good website for job searchers and then can get job through it. So must visit the site and do accordingly.

  • http://www.reginout.com/ Marting

    Nice concept

  • http://www.reginout.com/ Marting

    Nice concept