Monster Worldwide has just struck a deal with News Ltd to buy 50% of CareerOne, News’s online jobs board.

The deal in short, allows CareerOne to employ Monsters search engine for more exacting search results.

Whats interesting here is why now? The market is tanking, job vacancies are evaporating and CareerOne’s Job numbers were down 10% from recent July levels. News CEO John Hartigan explains that the deal “signals an intensifying of our challenge to Seek“.

Possible benefit’s for News, if they are willing to spend the cash during the downturn, include promoting the CareerOne brand while Seek’s financials stall, which could result in more market share for the company next year when markets pick back up. Its a viable avenue to head down, but in order to gain more market share, there needs to be more jobs available and with current employment numbers dropping, that option isn’t looking attractive.

I’ve followed this story for the best part of 5 months now, ever since Monster announced they were heading back into the Australian market earlier in the year, after failing last time they were here. The question that still sticks out for me on this is, how can you realistically expect to be anything more than a distant second to Seek in the online Job’s board market in Australia.

The Bassett brothers company, which is now 26.7% owned by James Packers Consolidated Media Holdings, retains a staggering 60% of the Australian market. That is a colossal piece of market share, which Seek will aim to retain, tooth and nail.

There just doesn’t seem to be a financially attractive or strategically effective way to beat Seek in this sector.

I found that Fairfax Digital’s Jack Matthews’ remarks, sum up the move well,

“[we don't see] the benefit of bringing in a company that’s already tried and failed here. If we had a business that was really successful, we wouldn’t sell half of it.”

Seek has beaten Monster once before…and I can’t see a merger with CareerOne stopping that from happening again.

Seek Killer?? — We’ll wait and see.

I’m starting to think that Aussies either love the hunt for a bargain or are just plain tight-arses. How else can you explain the number of sites that are popping up that are focused on getting people things for less?

You can now add to that list Sydney-based GrabaDiscount.

GrabaDiscount is a free online discount voucher directory. It’s a little different to well known coupon/voucher sites like RetailMeNot and Tjoos in that their focus is on discount vouchers that people can print and take to physical stores. That’s not to say that they don’t have online vouchers, just that the focus is real world shopping.

The site is the brainchild of brothers Rajiv and Sunil Jacob. Neither comes from a pure tech background, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Rajiv is a project manager at a leading financial institution (not a bad time to be working on another gig) and Sunil is a dedicated “medical professional”. Together the brothers have spent around $100K getting the site to where it is today, which is fully launched and on the prowl for more companies and end-users.

Speaking of users and companies, the site is currently at around 5000 members, with over 1300 business listed (and with at least one voucher). The boys have been very open about their progress even going so far as to post all their stats on the site HERE.

Devlopment-wise they’ve recently added some nice features to the company pages including pop-out feedback forms and built in google maps. (here’s an example). The boys tell me there are more updates to come soon, so keep an eye out for those as they come through.

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It’s definitely a busy market, but the guys appear committed to success, which is often half the battle. Should be interesting to see how they go over the coming months and whether or not they have to turn up the percentage of online-use coupons or if they can stay focused on real-world retail.