Photo credit: Carousell.
Online classifieds app Carousell has added job listings, as some users found out today through a notification on their phone.
The ads are laid out in Carousell’s familiar format and seem to point mostly toward part-time positions and odd jobs.
According to Carousell, the Jobs and Services category has been live for users in Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong since late February, and launched in Malaysia in early April.
In its quest to become the go-to destination for classifieds, Carousell has been steadily adding new features and services. In February, it launched Carousell Motors, a standalone app for buying and selling used cars.
Job ads on Carousell’s main app. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.
The company has always cited user demand as a key driver for every addition to the service. “With all products, we look at the data, talk to our community, and try out different ideas,” CEO Siu Rui Quek told Tech in Asia when the startup rolled out Carousell Motors.
“In many ways we’ve doubled down on our mission – we are essentially a mobile classifieds system rather than a business-to-business-to-customer marketplace,” he said at the time. “We want to focus on our users and listings, find what resonates more with our community and what value we can bring to them.”
Considering that job listings have always been part of newspaper classified ads, it’s not too much of a stretch to have them on Carousell. However, they mark a big departure from its ecommerce offerings.
“As a mobile classifieds platform, we recognize that jobs tends to be one of the categories that is helpful for classifieds users,” a Carousell spokesperson tells Tech in Asia. “We believe that jobs and services complement the Carousell community, and add more value for our users.”
As Carousell expands to more and different types of listings, it opens itself up to competition from providers who specialize on their vertical, be that job ads, car marketplaces, or fashion items. In Singapore, jobseekers have taken to websites like Jobstreet to look for positions.
Startups, in the meantime, are trying to improve job hunting in various ways. For example, MyWork matches employers with shift workers for odd jobs and temp positions. Glints offers job listings with a focus on helping young people plot out their future careers.
(Update, 2/6: The story has been updated with comment from Carousell.)
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