Our Value Creation - Evolving with the Times
Recruit Group was launched in 1960 in a small prefabricated rooftop unit in Tokyo. The Group's first product was a job-hunting magazine for university students called "Invitations to Companies," and its goal was to create an open job market for new graduates by widely disclosing recruitment information. 2020 marks the 60th anniversary of Recruit Group's founding. In those 60 years, we've brought individuals and companies together through a variety of services and solutions that span across the world.
Recruit Group is known for reaching beyond the boundaries of our business and industry in search of ways to solve problems in the world through optimal matching. As society continues to change, Recruit Group's mission remains the same: to create "Opportunities for Life" by prioritizing social value, delivering information to those who need it with speed and convenience, and providing opportunities for everyone to discover the best choices for themselves. We strive to create value by nurturing the potential of each individual and betting on the will and passion of curious minds to correct disadvantages in the world.
Today, in the face of unprecedented change, our mission is more relevant than ever and our services and solutions are constantly evolving to become faster, simpler, and more accessible. As we celebrate our 60th anniversary, we have traced Recruit Group's history of value creation along three axes: business field expansion, digital transformation, and globalization.
Business field expansion
Our first product united new college graduates with the right companies and laid the foundation for Recruit Group's business model, a two-sided marketplace structure called the "Ribbon Model," which continues to guide us today. Using this model, we have developed mid-career recruitment, placement, and temporary staffing businesses to meet the needs of today's human resources departments. We have also developed businesses that focus on supporting companies looking to hire people during periods of high growth, changing the way people move between jobs, and expanding work opportunities for women.
Recruit Group has also expanded beyond HR with businesses that help individuals make the best choices by liberalizing information in lifestyle and life events sectors, including housing, marriage, travel, dining, and beauty. In recent years, we have been working to create new value by providing business and management support through the use of SaaS (software as a service) solutions, including customer attraction, reservation, and waitlist management, payment, and staff scheduling solutions. We will continue to search for everyday problems that would benefit from our efforts to match individuals and companies in meaningful partnerships.
Digital transformation
Recruit Group was among the first to use computers in the 1960s to digitize and improve the provision of information. In the 1990s, we transitioned from paper media such as magazines to widely-accessible online media, and then to media optimized for mobile devices.
We are continuously expanding our SaaS solutions, which include an online reservation management site that helps corporations improve operational efficiency, tools that streamline the entire hiring process for the talent matching market, and the Air BusinessTools suite of solutions.
Globalization
In the 2000s, Recruit Group began business development outside of Japan, with the aim of finding new applications for our information distribution and matching expertise. The Group's first step into the global market was with a bridal information business in China. Though we withdrew after a few years, the experience helped us shape our overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy.
With the success of our HR businesses in Japan, we hoped to find ways to facilitate job opportunities on a global scale. We soon began acquiring businesses in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and beyond, starting with the CSI Companies, a U.S.-based staffing company, in 2010. We acquired Indeed in 2012 and Glassdoor in 2018, and these two HR-tech acquisitions led to the establishment of our HR Technology business, which has spearheaded the growth of Recruit Group as a whole and brought the number of countries we serve to over 60.
Foundation
Invitation to Companies
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IBM 1130
Introduced the IBM 1130 Computing System, becoming the first company in Japan to use this groundbreaking computer.
Recruit Computer Print
Established Recruit Computer Print, a company specializing in digitized pre-production processes focused on adopting leading edge publishing technologies.
housing information
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Travail
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Car Sensor
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Launched Information Network Service
Against the backdrop of the privatization of Japan's telecommunication industry, launched Information Network Service operations and Remote Computing Service operations. Hired many engineers.
Recruit U.S.A.
Established Recruit U.S.A. to support Japanese companies with local hiring in the US.
Supercomputer Research Institute
Established Supercomputer Research Institute, aimed at developing insights into how to meet the challenges and opportunities of the approaching era of a datadriven society.
Launched Jalan
Launched Jalan, an innovative travel magazine.
Zexy
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Mix Juice (now ISIZE)
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Launched today's Rikunabi and Rikunabi NEXT
Digitized our job information magazines. Launched today's Rikunabi and Rikunabi NEXT.
Hot Pepper (now Hot Pepper Gourmet)
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Launched ISIZE TRAVEL(now Jalan.net)
Launched ISIZE TRAVEL(now Jalan.net) a platform for making accommodation reservations online.
Launched the bridal information magazine Zexy in China
Launched the bridal information magazine Zexy in China. Its failure a few years later helped shape a new M&A-focused strategy for global expansion.
Hot Pepper Beauty
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Acquired US-based staffing company, The CSI Companies
Acquired US-based staffing company, The CSI Companies, and implemented our Unit Management System. From this acquisition, we started the global expansion through M&As.
Juken Sapuri (now Study Sapuri)
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Acquired staffmark, Advantage Resourcing
Acquired Staffmark Group, Advantage Resourcing Europe, expanding our business field in the US and Europe.
SALON BOARD
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Acquired Indeed
Acquired Indeed (founded in 2004), which ran a job search engine in the US. This marked our full entry into the HR Technology business, which has revolutionized the HR industry with the use of disruptive digital innovations.
AirREGI
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2014Listed publicly on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange
AirPAY
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Recruit Institute of Technology (now Megagon Labs)
Established Recruit Institute of Technology (now Megagon Labs) to work with external organizations on research and development of AI, machine learning, sensors, and other new technologies.
Acquired the staffing companies Chandler Macleod and Peoplebank
Acquired the staffing companies Chandler Macleod and Peoplebank in Australia, companies with leading market positions and strong business fundamentals in this market.
Recruit Finance Partners
Established Recruit Finance Partners. Reinforced our expansion into the management support domain by providing loans to SMEs.
Fintech Promotion Division
Established a Fintech Promotion Division and launched digital innovation efforts in the financial industry.
Launched Indeed Hire
An innovative service that goes beyond the existing advertisement business in the financial industry.
Acquired USG People (now RGF Staffing)
Acquired USG People (now RGF Staffing), a leading European staffing company with a presence in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Belgium among other countries, marking our full entry into Europe.
AirSHIFT
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Acquired Glassdoor
Acquired Glassdoor, a leading online job and company information site founded in 2007. Glassdoor has developed a database of information and reviews posted by users, bringing transparency to the job seeking process and strengthening our HR Technology business.
Launched Indeed Assessments
Launched Indeed Assessments. Continued to introduce new services that improve efficiency in the recruiting and hiring process.
Air BusinessTools
Aggregated our business and management support services for small and medium enterprises, including AirREGI and AirPAY. Accelerated the expansion of our SaaS solutions using the cloud. Strengthened the development of new solutions for improving operational efficiency in stores.
1962
Published Invitation to Companies which consolidated recruitment information for university students and established the "Ribbon Model".
1976
Launched operations in the housing information industry in response to the recession precipitated by the oil crisis, and achieved rapid growth.
1980
Launched "Travail," Japan's first career change magazine for women, published 5 years prior to Japan's legislative enactment of The Equal Employment Opportunity Law.
1984
Launched the magazine Car Sensor, a business born from a training program for new employees, focused on the used car market.
1993
Launched Zexy, a bridal information magazine born from our new business proposal system, "Ring."
2000
While the Company expanded its businesses in the field of life events such as housing and bridal, it launched lifestyle information magazine Hot Pepper (now Hot Pepper Gourmet) which contains dining guides and coupons.
2011
Launched Juken Sapuri (now Study Sapuri), an online learning service for college entrance exams, then expanded into languages and other fields, successfully growing into as affordable high-quality online learning platform.
2013
Launched a SaaS-based POS cash register app for iPads and iPhones for use in dinings, retail, and service industries. It reduces the workload of small and medium enterprises and helps them create the store they envision.
2015
Launched a payment solution for small and medium enterprises and expanded our business support services. The payment service now works with various payment methods such as credit cards, e-money, QR codes*, and point systems.
*"QR Code"is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.
2018
Launched AirSHIFT, a SaaS-based tool for managing work shifts. It is widely used in various industries and is especially useful in industries experiencing labor shortages such as dining, retail, and other service industries.
1995
Launched Mix Juice (now ISIZE) marking the start of our online media business.
2007
Launched Hot Pepper Beauty, an online reservation service.
2012
Developed SALON BOARD, a cloud-based online reservation management system that improves operational efficiency at beauty salons through digitization such as replacing paper-based reservation books.
