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About


Welcome to Jobs Portal Watch

Jobs Portal Watch is an online publication specifically designed to serve the owners and operators of jobs portal sites around the world.

The site provides a range of information including:

News – daily updates on the top happenings at jobs portals around the world including acquisitions, new features, new site launches and movements of key people

Interviews – in depth interviews with key industry leaders

Opinions – receive the latest thoughts on where the industry is heading from Simon Baker, a recognised leader in the online classified’s industry

Analysis – detailed analysis of the listed jobs portal stocks

Overviews – business overviews of portals, companies, countries and thought leaders in the jobs portal world

Strategy Thoughts – regular strategic thoughts on the key issues facing jobs portals and what they can do about it

Operational Tips – tips and techniques covering sale, marketing and technology for people running jobs portals

You are able to subscribe to any or all of these sections just by entering your email address on the home page.

This site strives to be a collaborative effort; we want to encourage everyone involved in this market to provide us with tips, insights, corrections, stories and leads on what is happening in the jobs portal world.

The best part is subscription to the site is free. Just click here.

So who is behind Jobs Portal Watch?

View Simon Baker's profile on LinkedIn

Simon Baker is a leading global expert in the field of online classified advertising.

Simon currently runs Classified Ad Ventures (CAV), a business focused on helping and investing in online classified sites around the world.  In the jobs portal segment, Classified Ad Ventures currently has investments in ArtsHub and HippoJobs. 

From 2001 through 2008, Simon was the CEO and Managing Director of the Australian listed online real estate company – realestate.com.au Ltd (also know as the REA Group).

The REA Group is a leading provider of online real estate sites – operating 22 sites in 10 countries covering residential, commercial and holiday rentals. In addition, the REA Group owns a suite of back office applications and print publications.

During his time at the REA Group, Simon grew revenues from $4m in FY 2001 to $155m in FY 2008 and grew EBITDA from -$6m in FY 2001 to $37m in FY 2008. Most importantly, Simon delivered great returns for the shareholders by increasing the market capitalistion from $8m in June 2001 to over $600m in in June 2008.

Some of the other KPIs driving the growth of the business were:

  • Unique visitors increased from ~250k in June 2001 through 8m+ in June 2008
  • Paying customers increased from 1,200 in June 2001 through 24,000+ in June 2008
  • Employees increased from 25 in June 2001 through ~750 in June 2008

Helping drive this growth was 15 acquisitions between 2003 and 2008.

The REA Group is now seen as the global leader in online real estate marketing.

Prior to becoming the CEO of realestate.com.au in 2001, Smon was the Chief Business Development Officer at News Corp in Australia and was responsible for the investment by News Corp in to the realestate.com.au L:td business.

Prior to this, Simon was the Chief Technology Officer at a US start up – naturalhealthlink.com and he spent 5 years with McKinsey and Co in Australia.

He has an MBA from the Melbourne Business School and a BSc (Comp Sci) from Monash University.

To find out more about Simon, check out his linkedin profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker

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