SWOT analysis of Monster.com

Monster.com is a global jobs website which is owned by the US-based Monster Worldwide Inc. Recently it was acquired by Randstad for USD 429 million. The largest online jobs portal in the USA, Moster went on to become one of the first to offer online jobs to people across the world.

In addition to the posting of career opportunities in various sectors, Monster also permits users to create their own profiles, post freelance work opportunities and also offers add-on services such as resume modification and recommendations. The Monster Board was founded by Jeff Taylor following which he served as their CEO for many years.

The company has recorded a revenue of 144.8 million USD in the financial year ending 2016. Monster calls itself a career management firm and the objective is to plot the right person for the right job. Currently, the company has operations in around 40 countries across the world.

Table of Contents

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Monster.com :

Strengths are defined as what each business does best in its gamut of operations which can give it an upper hand over its competitors. The following are the strengths of Monster:

First mover advantage: Monster.com was the first of its kind and also one of the earliest commercial websites. It almost created a concept that jobs could be found on the internet and before the nearest competitor came into existence it could carve a market and a name for itself.
Ability to match the right people to the right jobs: The key selling proposition for the online job portal was that it was capable to matching from its vast repository of information, the right people, for the right job.
Vision: Monster was envisioned by Jeff as a place where employers, as well as employees, could rely on to keep their work skills and history intact or improve on them even when they were not looking for a change of employment.
Vast information source: Monster consisted of a huge repository of information resources and eliminated the effort that companies needed to invest to go out into the market to find resources who match their job vacancies.
Wide global network: com was a pioneer in the field of recruitment which has offices in more than 40 countries. The concept eliminated the boundary constraints of recruitment and selection process and this resulted in more opportunities being created for both prospective employers and job-seekers,

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Monster.com :

Weaknesses are used to refer to areas where the business or the brand needs improvement. Some of the key weaknesses of Monster are:

Lack of a clear differentiator: Though Monster.com was a pioneer in the field of online recruitment they did not do anything much to create a clear differentiation for the brand.
Unclear pricing strategy: Monster did not have a very clear pricing strategy for itself and this confused both job seekers and job providers. Later they introduced a low-cost pay for performance component to its duration pricing plan which backfired badly in the long run.
Morphing from a leader to a follower: Though Monster.com was the first of its kind of business model after competition picked up it was almost as if the company had lost its spirit of innovation.In the past few years when the brand has started its decline, there has been nothing innovative from their end and have mostly been initiating successful trends of their competitors.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Monster.com :

Opportunities refer to those avenues in the environment that surrounds the business on which it can capitalize to increase its returns. Some of the opportunities include:

Scope for penetration in emerging economies: Like in the case of most other industries, there is a lot of job opportunities in emerging economies like India and China. However, both these countries have their own portals which are highly successful.By entering into a tie-up with one of these players Monster may be able to exploit the vast opportunities in these markets.
Change of trends: The growing number of working professionals.The number of educated individuals, the need for a job change and the focus on smart career choices for which people feel that an additional premium can be paid are all opportunities for Monster.com.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Monster.com :

Threats are those factors in the environment which can be detrimental to the growth of the business. Some of the threats include:

Competition: The growing competition in the online job market, has created a lot of competition in this space.The nearest rivals of Monster.com are naukri.com, timejobs.com etc.
The general downturn in the job market: There is a general downswing in the job market today and many companies are trying to throw out their existing jobs. The number of vacancies is continuously reducing in most countries and across most sectors.