Glassdoor acquires popular anonymous adland forum Fishbowl to stir conversations

Workplace review company Glassdoor has acquired Fishbowl, a semi-anonymous social network and job board. Fishbowl is a popular social platform with 40% of its current users being employees from advertising agencies Ogilvy, McCann, and Wieden+Kennedy; and from consultancies Mckinsey and Company, L.E.K and Booz Allen.

The acquisition comes following a Glassdoor survey of US employees, conducted by The Harris Poll, which revealed that 48% of employees have felt isolated from coworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 42% of employees have felt their career stall due to the lack of in-person connection. Nearly half (45%) of employees expect to work hybrid or full-time remotely going forward. 

Christian Sutherland-Wong, CEO of Glassdoor said that the world of work is dramatically changing and so are workers’ needs. “With this acquisition, we’re giving job seekers and employees an unmatched real-time look into the employee experience across companies and industries,” he added.

This integration comes as 69% of employees surveyed said they wished they were able to learn more about the team they would be working with when deciding to accept a job, and 64% said they wished they had a way to ask questions to industry peers around the country. To help meet the changing needs of today’s working professionals, Fishbowl by Glassdoor will aim to deliver even more workplace transparency through candid conversations, and connect with one another to build communities. 

"Glassdoor and Fishbowl provide a look inside the ongoing transformation and what’s crystal clear is that workers need more information, more connection and more community, no matter where they’re located,” Sutherland-Wong added. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Glassdoor for the value of the acquisition and its plans to market the integrated platforms.

Following the acquisition, employees and job seekers on Glassdoor will see relevant Fishbowl conversations from people working in related companies and industries. They can also opt to experience more by clicking on these Fishbowl conversations and visiting Fishbowl to see full conversations and explore company feeds, industry and special interest bowls.

Founded in 2008, Glassdoor currently has over 55 million user each month and offers millions of ratings, reviews, salary reports and other workplace insights, shared by employees, to help job seekers better understand what it’s really like to work at a company.

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Photo courtesy: 123rf.com

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