Key Facts
Corporate Summary
- Who We Are
- Our Goals
- Our History
- Our Stats
- Our Culture, People and Sustainability
- Our Values
- Our Other Services
Who We Are
SEEK Limited (ASX code: SEK) is the leader in the online employment and training market in Australia and New Zealand. SEEK has expanded its reach internationally by identifying and acquiring interests in five online employment websites which operate in countries across South East Asia, China, Brazil and Mexico. Our international investments complement our portfolio, offer opportunities to leverage the expertise gained in the Australian and New Zealand markets, and provide SEEK with a global footprint of #1 and #2 players in the online recruitment market with exposure to over 2 billion people and approximately 20% of global gross domestic product.
Our Goals
What is SEEK’s primary goal?
Our primary goal is to connect people with careers, related learning and business opportunities.
How is this goal achieved?
Our websites allow jobseekers to search for jobs that meet their specific criteria in a much more efficient way than that allowed by traditional means, such as newspapers. For employers and recruiters, SEEK provides access to the largest audience of job candidates at very significant cost savings relative to print media and with significant functionality benefits.
SEEK’s Education businesses help those looking to undertake further career development by connecting them to online and campus based training courses that best suit their needs. The courses are provided through SEEK’s partnerships with leading training providers, such as IT vendors, major universities and SEEK’s wholly owned subsidiary Think: Education Group Pty Ltd (“THINK”).
Part of the SEEK family, SEEK Commercial is a marketplace for businesses and franchises for sale across Australia with thousands of business opportunities advertised.
Our History
SEEK was founded in 1997 by brothers Paul and Andrew Bassat along with co-founder Matthew Rockman. Since 1997 SEEK has established itself as one of Australia’s fastest growing businesses, cementing itself as the destination of choice for Australian job seekers, and one of the most successful start up companies in Australia. A brief overview of our evolution is provided below.
1997
SEEK was born in Australia, with a focus on the Australian online employment market and the development of its unique services and product offerings.
1999
SEEK expanded beyond Australia with the launch of seek.co.nz, which soon became the most popular online employment site in New Zealand.
2004
In 2004 SEEK consolidated its position at the top of the New Zealand job market by acquiring nzjobs.com.nz.
SEEK also moved into the complementary training and development industry during 2004, by acquiring online training company, SelfCert, which has since been branded to “SEEK Learning”.
2005
SEEK made its debut on the Australian Stock Exchange on 19 April 2005.
In August 2005 SEEK announced the acquisition of Dynamic Web Training (DWT) Pty Ltd as part of its expansion in vocational training and education. DWT provides short classroom based training courses for popular software applications.
September 2005 saw SEEK’s inclusion in the ASX/S&P 200 Index – an index of the leading 200 shares in Australia.
2006
September 2006 saw SEEK acquire a 50% interest in IDP Education Pty Ltd (“IDP”), a provider of English language testing and enrolment services to international students looking to study in a number of countries including Australia. IDP has now expanded its offerings for students to include universities in the US, Canada and UK.
In October 2006, SEEK acquired an initial 24% interest in Zhaopin Ltd (“Zhaopin”), one of the leading online employment sites in China. The Zhaopin investment represented SEEK’s first investment in an online employment site outside Australia and New Zealand. Since 2006 SEEK has increased its investment in Zhaopin to around 56%.
In late 2006 SEEK launched SEEK Commercial, www.seekcommercial.com.au, a website which allows people to browse online for business and franchises for sale.
2007
SEEK acquired a 50% interest in THINK, a private education organisation that owns several private tertiary colleges, in October 2007. We acquired the remaining 50% of THINK in May 2009. This acquisition helped provide SEEK with a diverse presence in the training and education business through a strong collection of assets.
2008
In September 2008, SEEK acquired a 10% interest in JobStreet Corporation Berhard (“JobStreet”), a leading provider of online employment websites in South East Asia. Since 2008 SEEK has increased its investment in JobStreet to around 22%.
November 2008 saw SEEK acquire a 30% interest in Brasil Online Holdings Cooperatief UA (“Brasil Online”) the owner of the two leading employment sites in Brazil.
2010
During 2010, SEEK acquired a 40% interest in Online Career Centre Mexico SA de CV (“OCC”) and SEEK Asia (a company jointly owned by SEEK, Consolidated Media Holdings Limited, Macquarie Capital and Tiger Global) acquired an initial interest of 40% in JobsDB Inc (“JobsDB”).
SEEK Asia subsequently increased its stake in JobsDB to 80% via the acquisition of an additional 40% over the course of May and June 2011.
2011 and beyond
Our Board and management believe that the combination of organic growth through increased volumes, yield, and product extension along with potential growth by acquisition provide an attractive long-term outlook for SEEK.
Our Stats
- SEEK enjoys a formidable lead over our nearest competitor in the Australian jobs market in terms of key jobseeker audience and advertiser metrics. SEEK’s Australian employment website (seek.com.au) is visited over 13 million times1 a month, in addition to the 2.1 million visits2 recorded via mobile devices.
- In October 2011, SEEK recorded over 46 million job ad detail views, of which 3.8 million were made on mobile, offering unrivalled reach, engagement and relevance in connecting job ads on SEEK with the largest audience of Australian jobseekers.
- SEEK has more than 150,000 job advertisements in any given month (more than 3 times the number of job opportunities listed by its nearest competitor3 );
- Of the total time spent by jobseekers on the three major Australian employment sites, 83% of that time was spent on SEEK . That’s 10x more than our nearest competitor; and
- SEEK’s site reach was 74% of the online jobseeker market in Australia1.
1Nielsen Online Ratings, Market Intelligence traffic data, monthly, November 2011
2 SEEK Omniture, November 2011
3 Based on SEEK count of websites
4Nielsen Online Ratings, Market Intelligence traffic data, Nov 2011
As at July 2011, SEEK Learning (seeklearning.com.au) had more than 250 career-related courses from leading providers on its website5.
Refer to our Reports & Presentations section (http://investors.seek.com.au) for our latest Results Presentations which will provide you with other interesting facts about our financial and operating performance.
Our Culture, People and Sustainability
Since its inception, the team at SEEK has been focused on making SEEK an inspiring and energising place to work – it is integral to our culture and our success.
SEEK’s strength is a mixture of its brand, its product and service offering to customers and students, its operational systems, and most importantly its people.
SEEK currently employs approximately 700 people in Australia and New Zealand, and also employs a significant number of people in its JobsDB subsidiary and international investments throughout South East Asia, China, Brazil and Mexico.
Our high levels of Employee Engagement and focus on maintaining innovative people practices have helped us maintain a consistently high ranking in the Hewitt Best Employer Awards.
Being a responsible corporate citizen is part of SEEK’s commitment and consequently we have a formalised Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program known internally as ‘SEEK Village’. SEEK’s CSR program includes a volunteering program which sees employees spend one day per year volunteering in the community, our ‘Bright Futures’ workplace giving program and ‘SEEK Green’ which focuses on sustainability and minimising our environmental impact.
Our Values
Honesty..... “Mean It”
Every interaction we have with our teams internally and externally with our job seekers, advertisers, students, shareholders and other interested parties provides us with an opportunity to demonstrate our integrity and transparency. We create an environment in which our teams speak openly and considerately, are constructive with their feedback and most importantly learn from each other’s experiences.
5Based on SEEK internal data
Ownership..... “Show It “
We are a company that is made up of a phenomenal team that set out every day with the intention to make a difference. To help accomplish this we encourage initiative, vision, creativity, and delivering on promises, whilst ensuring that everyone takes responsibility for their actions and decisions.
Teamwork.....” Share It “
We are an organisation of diverse people, founded on some basic principles, including: the premise that collaboration breeds success; respect others; and support the team to achieve and succeed.
Passion.....” Bring It “
We inspire our teams to get involved, have fun, be positive, channel their energy and passion in relation to delivering outcomes, and to celebrate their successes.
Our Other Services
In addition to our online employment and education services, SEEK also brings volunteers and not-for profit organisations together free-of-charge through SEEK Volunteer, and allows people to browse online for business and franchises for sale via the SEEK Commercial website.
For further information please contact:
Andrew Bassat
CEO
SEEK Limited