Recruit Holdings

Recruit Holdings is a human resources, technology, staffing, and media company headquartered in Tokyo. It was founded in 1960.

The company was founded in 1960 and incorporated in 1963 in a rooftop office in Tokyo. The company's first products were job-hunting and industry magazines. Since its first magazine, Invitation to Companies, which launched in1962, Recruit has started five industry publications, including Housing Information, directed at the housing industry, Travail, a magazine marketed to women in business, Car Sensor, marketed to the used car sales industry, Jalan, a travel industry magazine, Zexy, a bridal industry publication, and Hot Pepper, a lifestyle guide.

Recruit was early to embrace computer technology, adopting the use of the IBM 1130 for company operations in 1968. In 1971, it started using digitized pre-production technology for its publications.

Beginning in the 1980s, Recruit began exploring ways in which to improve the job search and recruting process through the use of information technology. In 1985, it hired a number of computer engineers and launched its Information Network Service. Two years later in 1987, the company established it's Supercomputer Research Institute.

In 1985, the company expanded into global operations when it founded Recruit U.S.A.

Recruit entered the online media market in the mid 1990s. In 1996, Recruit launched two digital job information magazines, Rikunabi and Rikunabi NEXT. It launched an online platform for making accommodation reservations, ISIZE Travel in 2000. In 2011, it launched Juken Sapuri, a online learning service for college entrance exam preparation. Recruit launched AirREGI, a digital point of sales system for mobile operating systems in 2013. The launch of AirPAY, a mobile payment solution for small and medium businesses followed two years later in 2015.

Beginning in 2010, the company started to expand its holdings first by acquiring The CSI Companies. In 2011, the company expanded operations to Europe by acquiring Staffmark Group, Advantage Resourcing. In 2012, the company acquried the US based job search engine Indeed.

In 2014, Recruit Holdings Co. went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In 2016, Recruit Holdings expanded heavily into the financial industry when it launched Recruit Finance Partners, which provides loans to small to medium enterprises. The same year it also launched its Fintech Promotion Division. It also expanded it's Indeed operation by starting Indeed Hire, which was aimed at expanding the existing recruiting advertisement business in the financial industry.

In 2018, Recruit acquired the online human resources platform, Glassdoor.

The company operates as three strategic business units, human resources technology, media and solutions, and staffing.

It's human resources technology unit oversees its online job search platforms and recruiting technologies. This unit primarily oversees Indeed and Glassdoor.

Recruit's Media and Solutions unit oversees it's print-based advertising and marketing media enterprises. This division oversees the company's media publications such as Hot Pepper, Jalan, and AirREGI.

Recruit's Staffing unit oversees its global staffing companies, including Staffmark Group, The CSI Companies, and USG People.