Online-recruiting agency Part-time.com has secured HK$15 million from venture-capital firm enterpriseAsia.com, despite the difficult capital market. The year-old Hong Kong agency was one of seven early-stage technology investments made by enterpriseAsia.com, which manages GBP12 million (about HK$133.9 million) and was itself established early last year. It listed on the London alternative-investment market in February. EnterpriseAsia.com chief executive Benjamin Ng said since the burst of the technology stocks bubble in March last year, the company, like other investors, has based its investment criteria on stringent business fundamentals which applied to both new economy and traditional businesses. Despite competition from established online agencies which cover both full-time and part-time jobs, Part-time.com chief executive Toney Lam said the firm's registered domain name gave it an advantage in the part-time segment. He said the firm's niche-market strategy avoided direct competition with mass-market agencies. However, the strategy meant the firm had to spend substantial resources on educating its clients on using the Internet as many of its target market's job seekers and employers - such as restaurants and retailers - were not accustomed to the Internet. It also faces competition from traditional agencies for business from large corporations, but Mr Lam said they tended to focus on different market segments. 'In fact, we build online databases for some of them, so our relationships are more co-operative than competitive,' he said. About 75 per cent of the firm's revenues came from online recruitment advertising, with the remainder from value-added services such as mobile-messaging services linking job seekers and employers. The firm hopes a higher rate of recurring advertising stemming from the shorter terms of part-time jobs and higher mobility of part-time workers will compensate for lower advertising rates compared with the full-time segment. Mr Lam said the company had more than 44,000 registered job-seekers and more than 2,100 registered employers, including many large retail chains.