Businessmodel of Viadeo

Customer Segments

Viadeo’s various services are targeted at both professionals and corporate entities.

The Viadeo platform principally serve professionals – including business owners, entrepreneurs and managers – from a variety of sectors, providing a platform for users to collaborate on projects, search for jobs and discuss issues. The platform is particularly popular among younger professionals that are more tech savvy.

Viadeo’s business services – comprising advertising, recruitment, marketing and advertising – are aimed at corporate customers, including recruitment firms and headhunters, blue chip corporates, media agencies and the business education providers.

Geographically, the Viadeo platform serves customers across Europe – notably in the Company’s native France – the US, Africa – primarily across the Maghreb – and Russia.

Value Propositions

Viadeo provides value to its customers through the accessibility and functionality of its platform, its platform’s convenience of use, and its pricing.

The Company offers its customers abroad range of tools and services which can be accessed via desktop and mobile devices at any time and from anywhere.

Channels

Viadeo operates a website at www.viadeo.com through which customers can register an account and access the Company’s flagship networking platform. The Company previously operated a separate domain for its Chinese users at www.tianji.com. The Viadeo platform can also be accessed through the Company’s mobile applications, which are available on iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone.

Viadeo also operates a domain devoted to its business services at www.business.viadeo.com. This site provides information to customers on Viadeo’s marketing, advertising, recruiting and training services and contact details for the Company’s relevant sales teams, which are divided by service.

Customer Relationships

Viadeo’s social networking platform is available to customers on a self-service basis. Customers are able to register for an account, manage their accounts and subscriptions and access Viadeo functionality directly through the Company’s web page, with no need for interaction with members of the Viadeo sales team.

As a social network, the content of the Viadeo platform is principally community-led, with users able to generate discussions, create groups, organise events and collaborate with no interference from Viadeo itself.

Corporate customers seeking to utilise Viadeo’s advertising, marketing, recruiting and training solutions must contact the relevant sales team directly. This way, the Company is able to provide its customers with greater personal care, ensuring that their individual needs are met.

Viadeo provides technical support and assistance to its customers, and interacts with its users through its social media accounts, including on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, as well as on its own Viadeo platform.

Key Activities

Viadeo is a French company that develops and operates an online social network targeted at professionals. The Company comprises a private network of professionals from a range of business sectors and from start-ups to well-established companies. It aims to enable professionals to connect with one another across industries, departments, ranks and locations, making collaboration and the sharing of business ideas more efficient.

The Company also provides corporates and agencies with a range of business to corporates and agencies, helping them to identify new contacts, recruit new team members, and interact with competitors.

The Company primarily serves customers in Europe – notably its native France – Russia, and North Africa. The Company’s Chinese offerings have been discontinued.

Key Partners

Viadeo’s suite of products and services are supported by a range of companies and associations from within the technology space and the corporate sphere. The Company partners primarily with:

• Software and Application Developers, which use the Viadeo API to create integrations with third-party applications, increase Viadeo functionality, and create integrated applications from scratch;
• Digital Associations, which provide expertise, experience and guidance on operating within the digital space; and
• Corporate Institutions, which work with the Company in relation to its business services, in particular its recruitment solutions, and cooperate on joint-venture projects and strategic alliances. Viadeo has tie-ups with several high-profile French digital associations, including Renaissance Numérique, France Digitale and Transition Numérique +. The Company’s corporate partners include Orange, CCI France, Apec and Union de Auto-Entrepreneurs.

Key Resources

Viadeo’s key resources are its technology and platform, its IT infrastructure, its corporate and development partnerships, and its personnel – in particular those working within the sales and development teams.

Cost Structure

Viadeo incurs costs in relation to the development of its software and technology, the maintenance of its IT infrastructure, the management of its partnerships, the creation of marketing and advertising campaigns, and the retention of its personnel.

The Company recorded personnel expenses of €7.87 million in the first half of 2015 and external marketing expenses in the amount of €6.04 million. It also accrues costs in relation to the operation of its business offices, which represent costs in the form of rent and utilities.

Revenue Streams

Viadeo generates revenue through the provision of its premium platform subscription services sold to professionals, the provision of recruitment tools and services to corporate clients, and the provision of advertising space and marketing solutions to corporate clients. These services are divided among the Company’s three reportable segments: Online Subscriptions, Recruitment and Training Services, and Marketing and Advertising Services.

In 2015 Viadeo recorded €24.3 million in revenue, down from €26.9 million recorded in 2014.

Of that total revenue, 55% was generated by the Company’s business services – recruitment, training, marketing and advertising – up from 49% in 2014. The remaining 45% was generated by Viadeo’s online subscriptions, the Company’s largest single reportable segment.