SEEK Strengthens Market Position with $180M Platform Unification

About Seek Limited

SEEK Limited (‘SEEK’, the ‘Group’, ASX: SEK) dominates the Australian online job advertising and recruitment market and has also established market-leading positions in Asia and New Zealand. The Group uses innovative data and technology tools to facilitate high quality matching and improve reliability of marketplace information.

The Group has also established the ‘SEEK Growth Fund‘ which is a venture capital vehicle exposed to early-stage ventures in the employment technology and education technology sectors.

Platform unification is driving operating leverage

Seek has now completed a 3-year infrastructure project to merge the talent and employer sides of the market and host its suite of uniformed products on an Asia-Pacific based centralised platform. Seek’s product offering comprises uniform products across all markets, with some local configuration.

Costing A$180 million, the unified platform provides scale efficiencies, rapid innovation, faster cycle times, as well as improved reliability and security. This increased operating leverage supports higher gross margins at more than 50 percent. This was reinforced in the chairman’s address at the November AGM when shareholders were told to expect total costs to grow slower than revenue each year from FY25.

Large addressable market

Seek estimate that the Asia Pacific total addressable recruitment value pool is about $35 billion across the existing Seek footprint which comprises Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand. This amount compares to the Group’s FY25 mid-point revenue guidance of $1.08 billion. Seek has publicly declared that it sees a FY28 revenue opportunity of $2 billion. The Asia Pacific market is estimated to grow by 5 percent per annum to FY28 based on 1.3 percent growth in the labour market and a 3 to 5 percent wage growth forecast.

Seek is ranked number one in placement share in all Asia Pacific employment marketplaces in which it operates and so appears well placed to achieve this 85 percent revenue lift over the coming 4-year period.

However, the employment market is sensitive to the economic cycle in the short-term. The most recent labour force data released in February 2025 shows a solid job market despite elevated interest rates and inflation. The unemployment rate is steady at 4 percent, the participation rate remains at 67.2 percent and the number of employed Australians at the end of January 2025 was 14.62 million.

Brand strength ensures market dominance

Data is currency for an online interactive information service business such as Seek which has more than 40 million talent profiles, and each year receives 2 billion clicks on job ads, 500 million platform applications, and short-lists more than 16 million candidates.

Placement share of the Australian market is estimated at 35 percent, which is equivalent to 4 times more than Seek’s nearest competitor. Seek’s Asian market share is estimated at 23 percent, where Seek is the leader in all Asian markets contested. Seek Asia is a high growth market and strong double digit revenue growth is forecast for FY25.

In its recent trading outlook statement Seek noted that the decline in job ad volumes in Australia has begun to stabilise while conditions in New Zealand and Hong Kong remain cyclically lower. Overall, FY25 Adjusted Profit has been revised marginally lower to the range of $135 – $160 million, compared to Adjusted Profit of $177 million in FY24.

While macroeconomic conditions are weighing on Seek’s short-term performance, the Group’s unified platform supports advertising yield growth assisted by product innovation including AI-driven matching and verification. This is driving margins toward 50 percent, and combined with Seek’s $2 billion revenue target by FY28, should see a return to robust earnings growth from FY26. This assessment is supported by Seek’s market leading brand with both hirers and job seekers in the Asia-Pacific jobs market.