Area 120’s Kormo app is aimed at young job seekers and the ‘Next Billion Users’

Area 120 is Google’s internal incubator and its latest project is called Kormo. Aimed at the Next Billion Users, it is specifically designed to new young job seekers without experience or resources.

Compared to the Google for Jobs initiative, Kormo is targeting a different jobs market and workforce. The app has been tested in Bangladesh and Indonesia where job seekers have to deal with listings that typically travel by word-of-mouth and aren’t posted online.

And though many of these seekers pay someone to create a paper CV (or résumé), their busy schedules and traffic congestion in the city makes it inconvenient to drop hard copies in employer CV boxes. Even after they apply, many seekers never hear back on the status of their candidacy.

The app allows users to quickly build a free CV that updates as users find jobs and enroll in trainings. A “Learn” tab in Kormo features free resources in the form of videos, articles, and other courses. This learning component comes as another Area 120 app is focussed on teaching users how to code.

Meanwhile, Google is working with businesses of all sizes to post their jobs online so that Kormo will display open positions that are tuned to the job seeker’s abilities. This direct application process allows candidates to get faster updates.

Google first launched the app in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where Kormo matched 25,000 people to jobs. It’s now more widely launching in Jakarta, Indonesia on Android.

Initially launched in Dhaka—the capital city of Bangladesh and one of the most densely populated cities in the world—Kormo has matched people with more than 25,000 jobs, including retail sales, delivery and contact center positions. Our time in Dhaka and Jakarta taught us a lot about the needs of young job seekers and employers in markets where rapid urbanization and growth are impacting labor markets.