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Glassdoor is an international website where employees can anonymously rate and discuss their employers – or former employers. Simultaneously, employers may post job postings on the website.
Thus, it is reasonable to describe the Glassdoor business model as a marketplace for human resources. Glassdoor is a review platform for employers that enables millions of users to rate businesses.
Glassdoor generates revenue via Job Listings, Job Advertising based on the number of advertised postings, Employer Branding, and Glassdoor Review Intelligence, a brand’s sentiment analysis platform.
Additionally, you could say that they combine a subscription-based strategy with a pay-per-use approach.
The company was formed in 2008 by three former Expedia executives, Robert Hohman, Rich Barton, and Tim Besse, and quickly became a success. Eleven years later, Glassdoor was acquired for $1.2 billion by Japan’s Recruit Holdings.
Glassdoor is headquartered in California and has offices in Chicago, Dublin, London, and So Paulo. With over 50 million monthly visits, Glassdoor has established a disruptive business strategy.
What is Glassdoor?
Glassdoor is an online job community where users may assess and review their former and current employers. Additionally, businesses can advertise to job searchers and post job openings on the platform.
Glassdoor’s business model is built on offering employers premium packages. The company earns money by posting jobs, branding employers, and advertising job ads.
This startup was founded by three former Expedia executives in 2007. Glassdoor was acquired by Japanese human resources giant Recruit Holdings for $1.2 billion in cash in 2018.
| Company Name | Glassdoor, Inc. |
| Company Type | Private |
| Founders | Robert HohmanRich BartonTim Besse |
| Product | Job search engine, Review Site |
| Owner | Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. |
| Founded Date | June 2007 |
| Headquarter | Mill Valley, California, U.S |
| Location Served | Worldwide |
| Website | https://www.glassdoor.com/ |
How Does Glassdoor Work?
Glassdoor is an online employment marketplace where users can review their current or previous employers. Additionally, firms can advertise job openings on the platform.
Nowadays, the site serves as a one-stop-shop for anything related to a certain business. Apart from reviews, users can provide information regarding the following:
- The salary that a corporation pays for open employment.
- The interview questions.
- Benefits of working for a certain company include bonus or overtime compensation, vacation time, and company excursions.
Users can also compare two businesses based on work-life balance, career potential, culture, and senior management approval.
A user’s hobbies and work history are also considered when Glassdoor generates recommendations for companies to follow.
Employers can use a plethora of tools and solutions to enhance their chances of hiring new personnel.
These include employer branding profiles, job advertising, comparing your organization against competitors, and simply eliminating competing advertisements from your company’s profile.
Employers might seek out new qualified personnel. Employer accounts enable employers to respond to employee feedback, manage their company profile, verify metrics, advertise jobs, do bench marketing, and enhance their brand to attract keen applicants.
Additionally, external parties have used Glassdoor data to generate estimates and statistics regarding work-life balance, office cultures, salary trends, and business revenues, among other topics. Additionally, the platform annually selects its Employees’ Choice Awards for Best Places to Work.
Additionally, the website confirms the authenticity of the evaluations by determining whether they originate from legitimate personnel, utilizing technological tools and a content management team.
How Does Glassdoor Make Money?
Glassdoor has developed into a platform where employees can review their former or current employers.
Businesses can use Glassdoor to find qualified candidates for open positions using a variety of tools.
Employers can utilize the platform’s functions for free, but it is for-profit on the employee side.
Currently, the business provides an array of products intended to assist employers in locating qualified candidates.
Thus, the company generates revenue, while employees and job seekers benefit from free use of the platform.
Job Advertising
Job advertisements are used to monetize the site. These assist employers in increasing the visibility of their job postings by placing them at the top of the job stream.
Job advertisements are included in the premium package available to medium and large-sized businesses.
The entire cost is determined by the number of jobs advertised and marketed.
Job Posting
Business owners can use Glassdoor to post open positions just like they might on Indeed or ZipRecruiter.
Glassdoor’s platform for job postings is freemium. Therefore, there is no restriction on posting in the top three positions.
Any listing that exceeds the free level is subject to a $249 surcharge per uploaded listing.
Small businesses can take advantage of the preceding method. There are more comprehensive products available for medium-sized, large, and enterprise-sized firms.
Employer Branding
Employer branding enhances a company’s visibility on the Glassdoor platform. There are several features to choose from, including:
- Enhancing a business’s feed with positive reviews
- Promoting a business with branded text, photographs, and videos
- Excluding competing ads from your company’s profile
- Brand advertising campaigns across the web and the Glassdoor platform allow employers to reach job seekers.
Pricing information is available on request. The client will likely receive them as part of a larger package.
What is the Funding and Valuation of Glassdoor?
Glassdoor has raised a total of $204.5 million in venture capital funding over the course of ten rounds, according to Crunchbase.
Glassdoor’s valuation was last disclosed during its acquisition in 2018. Glassdoor was acquired by Japan’s Recruit, which acquired Indeed for $1 billion in 2012.
Sutter Hill Ventures, Battery Ventures, CapitalG, and Tiger Global Management have all invested before the company. Glassdoor’s revenue is not publicly disclosed by Recruit Holdings.
What is the Revenue of Glassdoor?
Glassdoor reported the fiscal year 2018 sales of approximately $22 billion. A little over $14.1 billion of that total is attributable to the Human Resources Technology segment, including Indeed and Glassdoor.
Success Story of Glassdoor
Glassdoor was founded in 2007 by Robert Hohman, Tim Besse, and Rich Barton, founder of Expedia and Zillow.
Hohman began his career as an engineer at Microsoft after completing his Computer Science studies at Stanford. Later in his career, he was one of the original workers of Microsoft Expedia Travel Services, which evolved into Expedia.com.
Expedia went public in 1999 and continues to acquire smaller travel-related businesses in the years that followed. Hotwire, one of its purchases, later provided a home for Hohman, who served as CEO until 2006.
From there, Hohman pursued an unusual career path. He left his job at Hotwire to devote an entire year to World of Warcraft.
In an interview with Forbes, Hohman stated, “There is a maximum level hat you may accomplish in World of Warcraft.” On a Tuesday, I achieved it, and on a Wednesday, I launched Glassdoor. I recall it being level 70.”
He met Barton and Besse during his tenure at Expedia. Indeed, Barton became a mentor to Hohman, and the two remained in regular communication long after he left Expedia.
And it was Barton who conceptualized Glassdoor. In 2007, while still the CEO of Zillow, Barton unintentionally transmitted a document containing salary and stock information to an office printer. His helper hastened to retrieve the documents before anyone could examine them.
This small error prompted him to reflect. Why would somebody who is performing their job feel threatened by the disclosure of their pay and bonus?
After all, it would simply expose those who are excessively compensated or who do not perform their tasks correctly.
With that in mind, the trio approached friends and former coworkers to solicit opinions for the newly launched prototype site.
They also offered a chance to win an iPod to Silicon Valley engineers in exchange for providing reviews and salary information.
And these growth techniques were unquestionably successful. When the company entered public beta in June 2008, it had 250 businesses listed on the site, totaling over 3,300 evaluations.
The debut day resulted in over 1.2 million page views, over 10,000 new salary reports, 3,000 new organizations being added to the site, and servers collapsing due to traffic volume.
A year later, in 2009, the platform had surpassed 225,000 reviews and included over 23,000 businesses.
The company proceeded to add new features to its platform over the next few years. For instance, the option to add interview questions or update employer profiles are two examples. Additionally, successive fundraising rounds fueled the company’s expansion.
After years of rumors of an initial public offering, the company found an outlet in the private markets. Recruit Holdings of Japan acquired the company in 2018 for a total of $1.2 billion in cash.
Despite its rapid rise, the company’s path to global prominence has not been without setbacks.
The Wall Street Journal published an article in 2019 detailing how businesses manipulated the Glassdoor rating system by encouraging employees to post good reviews.
Additionally, Hohman stepped down as CEO of the company in 2019, ceding the reins to Christian Sutherland-Wong, a long-time executive traffic volume. His future job possibilities in gaming have not been revealed as of now.
Today, Glassdoor’s platform is visited by over 50 million individuals each month. To date, over 10 million job advertisements have been shared, together with 60 million reviews, salary, and (interview) insights. The company employs approximately 600 people in 11 offices located throughout the world.
And in case you’re curious, Glassdoor’s (former) employees awarded the company a combined rating of 3.9 (on a 5-point scale), while new CEO Sutherland-Wong received a 63 percent approval rating.
Key Takeaways From Glassdoor Business Model
Glassdoor is a job search engine. Initially, it was created to enable employees to exchange information about their former workplace anonymously.
Glassdoor has evolved from a simple review site that compared average job salaries and employee happiness to a global company.
It now includes a slew of services that assist companies in connecting with prospective prospects. These services include job posting, job advertising, and employer branding.
Additionally, Glassdoor earns money from employee reviews. Through natural language processing, employers gain important insights into how their organization is perceived from a culture, management, or inclusion standpoint.
