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View All NewsRecruit revenue up 7% in Q2 with Indeed and Glassdoor leading growth
Recruit Holdings Co. Ltd., one of the world’s largest staffing firms, reported revenue rose 7.3% in its fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30. The fastest growth took place in the Tokyo-based company’s “HR Technology” segment, which includes job board Indeed and recently acquired Glassdoor. Revenue was up 56.4% in this segment during the quarter.
However, the company reported overseas staffing revenue fell 3.7%.
| (¥millions) | Q2 2018 | Q2 2017 | % change | Q2 2018 (US$millions) |
| Revenue | ¥577,865 | ¥538,698 | 7.3% | $5,081.9 |
| Gross profit | ¥289,959 | ¥249,785 | 16.1% | $2,550.0 |
| Gross margin | 50.2% | 46.4% | ||
| Profit for the period | ¥45,604 | ¥41,987 | 8.6% | $401.1 |
Profits and losses from Glassdoor’s operations — which Recruit acquired in June for $1.2 billion — affected the company’s HR Technology segment for the first time. The segment’s growth during the second quarter was mainly due to increased sponsored job advertising revenue from new and existing clients at Indeed and the inclusion of Glassdoor. On a US-dollar basis, second-quarter growth in the segment was 55.1%.
Indeed’s job seeker traffic continued to increase by double digits year on year during the quarter and its client base continued to expand, according to Recruit. Approximately 250 million unique users visit Indeed each month.
Traffic to Glassdoor’s site increased as monthly unique visitors increased by double-digits year over year in the second quarter to approximately 60 million. Revenue growth was driven by its employer branding and job advertising products, as Glassdoor’s base of employer clients expanded.
Revenue by segment
| (¥millions) | Q2 2018 | Q2 2017 | % change | Q2 2018 (US$millions) |
| HR Technology (Indeed and Glassdoor) | ¥82,409 | ¥52,707 | 56.4% | $724.7 |
| Media & Solutions | ¥175,897 | ¥166,799 | 5.5% | $1,546.9 |
| Staffing | ¥325,853 | ¥324,614 | 0.4% | $2,865.7 |
Media and solutions includes nonstaffing businesses such as Recruit’s publishing operations. In the company’s staffing segment, revenue edged up only 0.4%
Recruit has staffing operations in the US, Europe and Australia as well as Japan. Examples of its overseas operations include Staffmark Holdings in North America, Recruit Global Staffing BV in Europe and Chandler Macleod Group Ltd. in Australia.
Staffing revenue outside of Japan fell 3.7% to ¥193.2 billion (US$1.70 billion) in the second quarter. The company cited the negative impact of foreign exchange rate movements and the application of accounting rule IFRS 15; excluding these impacts, quarterly revenue was flat year on year. Japanese staffing revenue rose 7.0% to ¥132.5 billion (US$1.17 billion).
Guidance
Recruit expects full-year revenue to rise 5.9%.
Share price and market cap
Recruit shares closed down 2.33% to ¥2,9757.50 in Tokyo today; the company had a market cap of ¥5.14 trillion, according to FT.com.