The competition in the online recruitement sector is very harsh. Four categories of websites may survive:

- the leaders, able to dominate in a very competitive market thanks to their budget of communication;
- The specialized sites, which have an added value in a given sector or region;
- The portals, which are based on secondary information;
- The traditional actors of job research, who benefit from their notoriety and expertise

The Leaders

The market is structuring around a few general websites which have significant budgets of communication, such as Monster or Jobpilot. In a field where the job offers of the competitors are close, publicity constitutes an determining advantage to generate visits and thus to contribute to the growth of the company. Belonging to a European platform (even world) and of thus being able to multiply the number of job offers available is a plus, but this is not a sufficient criterion of success.

The specialized websites

The sites which are specialized in a sector generally offer few offers, but they are much better targeted. Whether for a training period or an job, it is thus recommended to consult, when one has a specific skill, in priority the recruitment sites specialized in a sector, and even the portals of the sector in question, because most of them have an employment section.

Job portals

Regarding the mass of available information, the portals facilitate the researches because they gather in one site all the necessary information about a given sector. Portals like Yahoo!, Lycos, etc. are too general. On the contrary, job portals allow visitors to find the the relevant sites according to sectors, countries, positions, etc). The portals aims at attracting a specialized audience, which give them opportunities for targeted publicity and e-commerce.

The traditional actors of job research

The traditional actors of job researchs, that is to say are the job agencies (ANPE, APEC) or the press (L’Express, Le Figaro, Libération, etc.) generally post their job offers freely on the internet. Their consultation is easier (you can visit Ouest-France website in Strasbourg) and more effective, thanks to the search engines.