Vertical sites provide competition

Vertical networks with a focus on single profession are posing a challenge to generic ones, including LinkedIn, as highly-skilled professionals along with recruiters are flocking to these networks, experts say.

Vertical social networks like GitHub, StackOverflow, Curofy, Doximity are growing in popularity and are also attracting big money from investors that demonstrate their potential.

HR experts believe that these niche networks are perfectly placed to make an impact on the recruitment landscape because of the specific audience they cater to.

“Millions of users have diverted from LinkedIn taking advantage of industry-specific services provided by vertical networks. They have also been successful in raising enormous amount of money from investors,” said Maanendra Singh, Antal International, a global recruitment firm.

Nipun Goyal, co-founder, Curofy, a mobile platform for doctors to connect with other doctors, said “in a world where recruiters are looking for specialised skills, these networks make a lot of sense”.

Goyal further said that in recent times, niche vertical networks have gained momentum.

Academia.edu boasts of more than 25 million users, GitHub reports having more than 12 million users and over 5 million IT professionals use Spiceworks.

Vertical networks GitHub and StackOverflow are for software engineers, Curofy and Doximity (doctors), GrabCad (mechanical engineers), Spiceworks (IT professionals), Academia.edu and ResearchGate (academicians), Kaggle (data scientists), Edmodo (teachers), RallyPoint (military), Avvo (lawyers) and Strava (athletes).

Moreover, the funds raised highlights their potential.