50 mn networking conversations witnessed among rising workforce in Q3: Apna

Apna.co said it has facilitated professional networking through various algorithms and technology tools

While professional networking was always restricted to the white-collar job market, it is now becoming crucial for the rising workforce such as telecallers, delivery partners, and office assistants as well. Jobs and professional network platform Apna.co said it is observing a significant increase in professional networking among these workers and such conversations crossed 50 million in Quarter 3 (July, August, and September) of this year on its platform.

Apna noticed more than 16 million conversations in September this year among its communities. In the same month, about 18 million connections were made on the platform leading to people engaging through their feeds by posting content, commenting on the posts or having one-on-one conversations.

“Apna has built a strong platform helping millions of users build a network and utilise it for a professional growth trajectory,” said Karthik Manivannan, chief operating officer, Communities, Apna. “The rising workforce are now utilizing Apna’s platform to not only find jobs but also for professional growth, upskilling themselves, and socialising with their peers.”

The firm said it has facilitated professional networking through various algorithms and technology tools. This has enabled an extensive and diverse discovery of workers in the same field. Apna said community engagement has been an important channel of communication in the post-Covid era as it provides a platform for people to share their opinions and viewpoints on matters relevant to them.

Apna witnessed users preferring Monday and Tuesday to engage in conversations instead of weekends.

“While a majority of users downloaded the app with the intention to find or switch to a job of choice, most of them continued engaging (for upskilling themselves) with communities on the app,” said Manivannan.

Tier-II cities are more likely to choose a vernacular language for networking. Apna said it is available in 11 languages. Cities including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, and Bhilai have a high percentage of regional language users on Apna.

In 2021, Bengaluru-headquartered Apna became the fastest unicorn after the company raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Tiger Global, at a total valuation of $1.1 billion.

The firm said it has also witnessed an uptick in demand for professionals this festival season, with around 4,000 vacancies being posted on the platform every day. Around 200,000 job opportunities were created between September 1 and October 27 this year.

Roles such as business development, telemarketing and sales were among the categories with the most jobs; metro cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru led the demand.

With over 26 million users on the platform, telecalling, field sales, delivery person, data entry operator, among others were the most popular job categories among professionals during this festival season, the company said.

Women's participation in the workforce also increased during the season, with around 2.8 million job applications, especially from cities such as Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Kolkata. In fact, women applied for more jobs than men, especially for roles such as telecalling/BPO/telesales, receptionist/front office/help desk admin and office assistants, said the company.