Ian Siegel
Analyst · Justin Patterson with KeyBanc
This is Ian and I will again take the question. So the way we think about market share is, it's really hard to measure quarter-to-quarter, better measured over years, and especially when you're experiencing the kind of seismic changes in the labor market that we've undergone over the last one and a half years, it gets really tricky. But that said, we definitely believe we are gaining market share. And while our top line has come down, we are certainly not alone there. Our entire industry has effectively suffered a decline. And while there are a few larger players and many smaller ones, what still seems clear is that online is taking share from offline and that we ZipRecruiter have been winning share in that online segment of the market. Let me explain why we believe that and why we are confident that we're going to continue taking share in the future. I already mentioned that our organic job seeker traffic is up over 40% in 2023. That is a significant amount of increase in traffic. That going up allowed us to turn paid job seeker acquisition down. And while we didn't invest at the same levels, we effectively were able to keep job seeker traffic flat because there were so many job seekers coming to us for free. Further, those job seekers were highly engaged. As I mentioned before, the total applications were up 17% in 2023, which we view as validation of our strategy on improving our matching algorithms and also improving Phil. So the more we make Phil feel real, the more conversational and warm Phil becomes, and the better key guides, job seekers, through their process of putting together a resume and looking at the right jobs, it seems to be a virtuous cycle in terms of not only are we getting more traffic now, but we are optimistic about the future of what this strategy could bring to the site in terms of both users and their engagement. So if we zoom back out, we've also achieved 80% aided brand awareness with both employers and job seekers, which means we are a top of mind solution for both sides of our marketplace. And that has proven to be incredibly valuable because it generates a foundation of effectively organic traffic. And it gives us tremendous flexibility when it comes to navigating downturns like this because it gives us optionality in terms of control of our expenses. But further, and what we're also excited about is, there definitely is a value in having a recognizable brand when it comes to marketing and advertising in terms of the level of response that you get. So being a known brand, having higher brand recognition, that increases the efficiency of advertising. And when we see the recovery come and when we're investing into that recovery, it's just another advantage that we are able to press, as the category resumes to something that looks more like normal. I want to stress, again, the flattening we've seen is very, very early and we have seen signals of flattening before and then downturn resumes, so too soon to call it. But we are watching closely and staying very focused, and keeping optionality for now.