Inside Wantedly’s plans for competing against LinkedIn and standing its ground

Akiko talks about profitability and expansion at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016. Photo credit: Tech in Asia / Michael Holmes.

Four years after launching in Japan, Wantedly claims to be the country’s biggest social network for businesses with 20,000 clients on its roster. It also has one foreign market expansion kicked off, and another one planned right around the corner.

But there’s where things get interesting. When former Facebook and Goldman Sachs employee Akiko Naka founded Wantedly, it was to change the process of hiring from cold calls and LinkedIn CVs to a warm, social network-based approach.

See: Wantedly: Japan’s Trust-based Social Recruiting Site Officially Debuts

“From my point of view, LinkedIn, which is often quoted as one of the best-known options for recruiting, is an online resume and works well for job seekers to introduce themselves to potential employers and for talent seekers to find potential employees,” she had said when the site launched.

“In order to give our clients opportunities to find high-skilled talent, our approach is to reach people who are neither seeking jobs nor interested in changing their jobs,” she explained at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016.

While Wantedly’s core philosophy still remains the same, Akiko has quickly learned that what works in Japan may not necessarily work in the rest of Asia – the part of the world she wants Wantedly to dominate.

See: How to find the right fit when hiring (Infographic)

The Japanese startup expanded to Indonesia last year, but hit a speed breaker. The problem? Not enough Indonesian employees on board.

“Its [growth is] not going as fast as we thought in Indonesia. That’s why we are looking to hire a local team in Singapore. We need someone from the market to expand there,” Akiko said.

Wantedly is currently building its Singapore team and will launch in its second market outside Japan in three months, Akiko said.

Akiko wants to take her brainchild to 12 countries in Asia within the next two years.

Photo credit: paylessimages / 123RF.