Recently, the human resources (HR) industry has been entering new businesses such as dating applications and edtech. As the job market suffers from an economic slowdown, this is an attempt to overcome poor performance. HR corporations are expected to expand into non-recruitment areas for the time being to create sustainable revenue models.
According to the HR industry on the 24th, Saramin recently introduced a dating app called "Begins" that matches men and women based on data certification and psychological testing. This is Saramin's first service targeting individual consumers in the non-recruitment area. In Begins, the Saramin Psychological Testing Institute analyzes and classifies users' dating values and behavior patterns through a self-developed dating propensity test. It then recommends meeting candidates using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms.
Saramin has a strategy to operate a dating app based on the matching technology it has accumulated by running a recruitment platform. In fact, in Begins, face verification, which checks if profile pictures match actual faces, and a total of six authentication steps, including company and school verification, are conducted during the matching process. It is also pursuing information protection and personal information management system certification, the first in a dating app. Saramin said that more than 100,000 people participated in the pre-release on the 8th of this month, two weeks before the official launch.
The first HR corporation to enter the dating service market was Blind. Providing workplace community services, Blind launched the dating app "Blit" in November 2020. This platform can only be joined by adults who have verified their workplace through Blind. Blit has seen a growth trend, with the number of subscribers increasing by about 65% year-on-year as of last month.
Recruitment platform Wanted Lab has been holding a dating program called "Wanted Dating" for office workers every December since 2023. This program selects 25 men and 25 women through a verification process based on self-introductions and surveys to arrange group meetings.
HR corporations are expanding into new businesses beyond dating services. Incruit entered the edtech sector in October of last year through a test platform called "Gosajang." Gosajang is a solution that provides all the necessary features for online testing and proctoring, from exam creation to execution and results management. It offers proctoring capabilities that can detect and prevent cheating through a dedicated browser, alleviating concerns for companies adopting online tests.
Recently, as job matching has decreased due to the economic downturn, HR corporations are expanding into non-recruitment sectors. According to the Korea Enterprises Federation, the number of new hires last year was 122,000, which has decreased for seven consecutive quarters since the first quarter of 2023. Incruit's survey on "2025 hiring trends" indicated that only 65.6% of the 897 companies surveyed had finalized their hiring plans for this year, a decline compared to 79.3% in 2023 and 71.3% in 2024.
As a prolonged employment freeze is expected, HR corporations are likely to diversify their businesses to create sustainable revenue models. An HR industry official noted, "HR platforms can easily expand beyond the HR field to other businesses, utilizing the experience gained from matching job seekers and employers based on verified data such as personal information," adding that they are broadening their business areas to fields like dating and edtech where existing technologies can be applied.