Hello. I’m Yua Ishizumi, CEO of Palo Alto Insight and AI business designer. Layoff news is likely to continue in the tech industry in 2023.
For example, in November 2022, Meta announced its largest layoff to date, with more than 11,000 layoffs, or 13% of its workforce, according to CNBC. Also, after Twitter was acquired by Elon Musk for $44 billion in late October 2022 (approximately 6.44 trillion yen at the time of exchange), on January 21, the number of employees was less than one-fifth. CNBC reports that it has decreased to about 1,300 people.
Also earlier this year, Microsoft announced layoffs of 10,000 employees on January 17, equivalent to 5% of the company’s workforce. Amazon has also announced new job cuts this year, cutting more than 18,000 jobs.
In addition, not only major IT companies but also tech startups have continued to go through down rounds that have lowered their valuations, and have been laid off across the board due to being unable to raise funds.
In fact, there are companies that are profitable by laying off a large number of tech workers like this. LinkedIn is a professional SNS that Microsoft acquired in 2016 for $26.2 billion (approximately ¥2.77 trillion).
Demand for human resources business increases in the “era of layoffs”
Google’s New York office. Alphabet, which owns Google, announced on January 20 that it plans to cut about 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its total workforce.
CNN reports that LinkedIn’s mobile app will hit Google (Android) and Apple’s app stores sometime in 2022.Estimated 58.4 million downloads worldwide, representing a 10% year-on-year increaseIt is said that it will.
Furthermore, looking at Microsoft’s financial results for the first quarter of 2023 announced in October 2022, LinkedIn increased by 17% year-on-year in the first quarter (three months from July to September 2022). It says that sales have increased.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts at an earnings call in October that he saw “record engagement” among LinkedIn’s 875 million members, with growth accelerating, especially in global markets. I spoke.
Why is only LinkedIn doing well in the tech industry where layoffs are going on?
In the background, it cleverly encloses three types of users: employers, job seekers, and recruiters, and offers paid plans for each user segment,A business model that can be expected to charge from a specific user segment at any time of the economy, so to speak, is “hard to be influenced by economic conditions”It is mentioned.
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This is how layoffs use LinkedIn
A woman posted on LinkedIn that she received a layoff notice while breastfeeding at 4am on maternity leave. I am working on some of her photos.
Some LinkedIn users who have been affected by recent layoffs have spoken vividly about their layoff experiences, ending their posts with the hashtag #Opentowork (looking for a job). What stands out is what you are trying to touch people’s eyes.
For example, on the special page “Ex-Meta employees speak out”, which collects only posts from former employees who were laid off at Meta, “I was laid off when I woke up at 4 a.m. during maternity leave and was breastfeeding my 3-month-old daughter. (Posted with a photo of his daughter)” “A story about an engineer who joined Meta as a new graduate, met his wife, and expressed gratitude for having acquired the best skills as an engineer for the past eight years”, etc. , replete with personal unemployment episodes.
Adding a photo tends to increase the number of reactions from people around you, which in turn increases the number of likes and comments, increases exposure, and can be expected to have the effect of catching the attention of many recruiters.
And every message always ends with the appeal, “I’m looking for a job!”
In fact, the number of posts labeled “Open to work” on LinkedIn increased 22% year-over-year during the month of November. Laid-off users are using LinkedIn more actively to find jobs.
A special page that summarizes the LinkedIn posts of former meta employees who were laid off
The fact that the number of users who are moving from SNS such as Twitter to LinkedIn is increasing, not limited to laid-off employees, is also cited as a background for LinkedIn’s strong record.
It seems that the background is to build a more professional network for career design.
Reasons for individual users to “charge”
According to a report released in December 2022 by the US Insider research service “Insider Intelligence”, people will accelerate away from Twitter in the next two years, and by the end of 2024, more than 32.7 million users will flow out worldwide. Predicted.
Ironically, some of the former Twitter employees who were laid off published a system to support job hunting on LinkedIn rather than on Twitter, and played a role in connecting job seekers and recruiters. .
If job seekers want to use LinkedIn more effectively for job hunting, they can pay for a monthly paid plan called LinkedIn Premium ($29.99/month / 3635 yen/month in Japan). By paying, you can search more than 20 million job listings and get hired 2.6 times faster than the average, according to HP.
Specific functions that can be used by charging LinkedIn Premium include:
- InMail, a messaging feature on LinkedIn that lets you proactively contact your employer
- Ability to see who has viewed your profile in the last 60 days
- Access to over 15,000 e-learning courses on LinkedIn led by experts
etc. In addition, by becoming a Premium member, the “Premium” badge will be displayed on your profile, and from the perspective of employers and recruiters, it will have the effect of giving a good impression to “people who are looking for a job more actively and seriously.” I will explain that there is also
https://premium.linkedin.com/accelerate
LinkedIn’s slick business: Businesses make money when the economy is booming
The tech industry is now entering an uncertain recession.
But the economy is cyclical. There will come another time when tech companies will ramp up hiring like they did in 2021 during the coronavirus bubble.
Another segment of users that LinkedIn can monetize in an aggressive hiring market is the “employers and recruiters” user segment.
Employers can increase their followers and exposure by creating and enriching their company’s LinkedIn page. You can also aim for more exposure by posting recruitment advertisements and company campaign advertisements on LinkedIn.
Additionally, LinkedIn has a paid plan for salespeople. We also offer a service that allows you to acquire sales leads.
Occupation “Recruiter”
On the other hand, a recruiter, in the case of the United States, refers to a person who belongs to a company’s personnel department, etc., and is responsible for the first step (document selection) in the company’s hiring process, as well as coordinating subsequent interviews.
In addition, there are many cases where we find excellent human resources who are not job hunting, headhunt them, and encourage interviews. LinkedIn is leveraged in both cases.
If you use a product called LinkedIn Recruiter for recruiters (a light plan with usage restrictions is 13,300 yen per month when you sign an annual contract in Japan), you can search for candidates, secure a means of contacting candidates, and after that Manage recruitment processes, visualize analytics, and more.
According to LinkedIn, for example, the candidate search function has the following features.
- Search any candidate on LinkedIn and refine your results using 40+ advanced search filters, keywords and Boolean operations. Over 850 million registered users.
- Automatically discover hidden candidates with “recommended matches” based on hiring goals.
- Prioritize candidates who are most likely to get a response with the ‘open to work’ filter.
When I was talking to a recruiter friend a while back, I was struck by how he declared that he would continue to use LinkedIn Recruiter to the end, no matter what subscription he gave up. That is why LinkedIn, which has a detailed database of white-collar personnel information, is highly valued among American recruiters.
In the case of a normal recruitment database, job applicants’ resumes are accumulated, but detailed information on excellent human resources who are not looking for a job is not available.
However, in the case of LinkedIn, by taking the form of SNS, users themselves publish their work history data regardless of whether they are looking for a job or not. This means that the most important “latest information” is available.
LinkedIn Recruiter UI
in this way,
- If layoffs continue due to recession, job seekers will become paid members
- Companies and recruiters will become more paid members if recruitment activities become active due to the booming economy
As you can see, there are not many SNSs that have successfully monetized in both boom and recession. A well-balanced business model is the strength of LinkedIn, which is doing well even in a recession.
Source: BusinessInsider
Emma Warren is a well-known author and market analyst who writes for 24 news breaker. She is an expert in her field and her articles provide readers with insightful and informative analysis on the latest market trends and developments. With a keen understanding of the economy and a talent for explaining complex issues in an easy-to-understand manner, Emma’s writing is a must-read for anyone interested in staying up-to-date on the latest market news.