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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One)

For the transition period from                       to                        

Date of event requiring this shell company report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Commission file number: 000-50841

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act.

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None.

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Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act: None.

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report:

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.

o Yes   x No

If this is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

o Yes   x No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

x Yes   o No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).

x Yes   o No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer. See definition of “accelerated filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow.

o Item 17   o Item 18

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).

o Yes   x No

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INTRODUCTION

Unless otherwise indicated, references in this annual report to:

·                       “ADRs” are to the American depositary receipts that evidence our ADSs;

·                       “ADSs” are to our American depositary shares, each of which represents two common shares;

·                       “China” or the “PRC” are to the People’s Republic of China, excluding for the purpose of this annual report Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan;

·                       “Nasdaq” are to the Nasdaq Global Select Market;

·                       “RMB” are to Renminbi, the legal currency of the PRC;

·                       “shares” or “common shares” are to our common shares, with par value US$0.0001 per share;

·                       “U.S. GAAP” are to the generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America; and

·                       “US$” are to U.S. dollars, the legal currency of the United States of America.

Unless the context indicates otherwise, “we,” “us,” “our company,” “our” and “51job” refer to 51job, Inc., its predecessor entities and subsidiaries, and, in the context of describing our operations, also include our affiliated entities.

In addition, unless otherwise indicated, references in this annual report to:

·                       “51net” are to 51net.com Inc.;

·                       “AdCo” are to Shanghai Qianjin Advertising Co., Ltd.;

·                       “AdCo Subsidiaries” are to the subsidiaries of AdCo that conduct advertising businesses;

·                       “Qian Cheng” are to Beijing Qian Cheng Si Jin Advertising Co., Ltd.;

·                       “Run An” are to Beijing Run An Information Consultancy Co., Ltd.;

·                       “Tech JV” are to Qianjin Network Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.;

·                       “Wang Cai AdCo” are to Shanghai Wang Cai Advertising Co., Ltd.;

·                       “Wang Ju” are to Shanghai Wang Ju Human Resource Consulting Co., Ltd.;

·                       “WFOE” are to Qian Cheng Wu You Network Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.; and

·                       “Wuhan AdCo” are to Wuhan Mei Hao Qian Cheng Advertising Co., Ltd.

Any discrepancies in any table between the amounts identified as total amounts and the sum of the amounts listed therein are due to rounding.

This annual report contains translations of certain Renminbi amounts into U.S. dollar amounts at specified rates solely for your convenience. All translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars were made at the noon buying rate in New York for cable transfers of Renminbi as certified for customs purposes by the Federal Reserve Board, which was RMB6.2939 to US$1.00 on December 30, 2011. For further information on exchange rates, see “Item 3. — Key Information — Selected Financial Data — Exchange Rate Information.”

This annual report on Form 20-F includes our audited consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2009, 2010 and 2011, and audited consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2010 and 2011.

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This annual report on Form 20-F contains statements of a forward-looking nature. These statements are made within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. The accuracy of these statements may be impacted by a number of business risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated, including the following risks:

·                       market acceptance of our services;

·                       our ability to expand into other recruitment and human resource services such as business process outsourcing;

·                       our ability to control our operating costs and expenses;

·                       our potential need for additional capital and the availability of such capital;

·                       behavioral and operational changes of our customers in meeting their human resource needs as they respond to evolving social, economic and political changes in China as well as stock market volatilities;

·                       changes in our management team and other key personnel;

·                       introduction by our competitors of new or enhanced products and services;

·                       price competition in the market for the various human resource services that we provide in China;

·                       seasonality of our business;

·                       fluctuations in the value of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar and other currencies;

·                       our ability to develop or introduce new products and services outside of the human resources industry;

·                       fluctuations in general economic conditions; and

·                       other risks outlined in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, including this annual report on Form 20-F and any amendments thereto.

These risks are not exhaustive. You should read these statements in conjunction with the risks disclosed in “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors” of this annual report and other risks outlined in our other filings with the SEC. Moreover, we operate in an emerging and evolving environment. New risks may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of such risks on our business or the extent to which any risk, or combination of risks, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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PART I

ITEM 1.                                    IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS

Not applicable.

ITEM 2.                                    OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE

Not applicable.

ITEM 3.                                    KEY INFORMATION

A.                Selected Financial Data

The following tables present the selected consolidated financial information for our company. The selected consolidated statement of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2009, 2010 and 2011, and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2010 and 2011, are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements, which are included in this annual report beginning on page F-1. The selected consolidated statement of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2007 and 2008, and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2007, 2008 and 2009 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements, which are not included in this annual report. You should read the following information in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this annual report and “Item 5. — Operating and Financial Review and Prospects.” Our consolidated financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The historical results presented below do not necessarily indicate results expected for any future period.

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(1)             Share-based compensation was included in the consolidated statement of operations data as follows:

(2)             Each ADS represents two common shares.

Exchange Rate Information

We publish our financial statements in Renminbi. This annual report contains translations of certain Renminbi amounts into U.S. dollars at specified rates solely for your convenience. All translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars were made at the noon buying rate in New York for cable transfers of Renminbi as certified for customs purposes by the Federal Reserve Board, which was RMB6.2939 to US$1.00 on December 30, 2011. The noon buying rate on April 6, 2012 was RMB6.3052 to US$1.00. We make no representation that the Renminbi or U.S. dollar amounts referred to in this annual report could have been or could be converted into U.S. dollars or Renminbi, as the case may be, at any particular rate, the rates stated below, or at all. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Doing Business in China — Governmental control of currency conversion may affect the value of your investment” and “— The fluctuation of the Renminbi may materially and adversely affect your investment” as well as “Item 11. — Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk — Foreign Exchange Risk” for discussions on our foreign exchange risk and the effects of currency control and fluctuating exchange rates on the value of our ADSs.

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The following table sets forth information regarding the noon buying rates for the periods indicated. The source of these rates is the Federal Reserve Statistical Release.

(1)             Annual averages are calculated from month-end rates. Monthly averages are calculated using the average of the daily rates during the relevant period.

Risks Related to Our Business

Because we face significant competition in all of our businesses, we may lose market share and our results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We face significant competition in our online recruitment services, our print advertising and our other human resource related services businesses. Our online recruitment services, conducted through www.51job.com, face intense competition from other dedicated job search websites such as ChinaHR.com, Cjol.com and Zhaopin.com, as well as from local job search websites. In addition, other competitors engaged in print advertising or organizing job fairs have developed or acquired online capabilities.

Our city-specific recruitment advertising publication, 51job Weekly, faces competition within all of our markets. Competitors of 51job Weekly are primarily comprised of local newspaper publishers and specialized recruitment advertising publications.

Our other human resource related services face significant competition from a variety of Chinese and foreign firms in all of our markets, including certain firms that compete with us in the market for online recruitment and print advertising. In addition, some of the competitors we encounter in our business process outsourcing business are affiliated with local government agencies and have licenses to provide a wider range of services than we do.

Many of our competitors or potential competitors have long operating histories, have international strategic partners, have local government sponsorship, may have greater financial, management, technological development, sales, marketing and other resources than we do, and may be able to adopt our business model. As a result of competition, we may experience reduced margins, loss of market share or less use of our services by job seekers and employers. We cannot assure you that existing or future competitors will not develop or offer services and products which provide significant performance, price, creative or other advantages over our services. If we are unable to compete effectively with current or future competitors as a result of these or other factors, our market share and our results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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New competitors face low entry barriers to our industries, and successful entry by new competitors may cause us to lose market share and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

In the future, we may face competition from new entrants in the recruitment advertising industry and other human resource industries in which we operate. We may face greater competition from Internet portals, newspapers, dedicated recruitment advertising websites and publications, professional and social networking websites, and other human resource services providers who may enter the market for any or all of our services. For example, Baidu, Inc., a leading Chinese language Internet search provider, introduced an online recruitment website called Baijob in January 2011. Our businesses are characterized by relatively low start-up and fixed costs, modest capital requirements, short start-up lead times and an absence of significant proprietary technology that would prevent or significantly inhibit new competitors. As a result, potential market entrants, both in China and from abroad, face relatively low barriers to entry to all of our businesses and in all of our markets. In addition, we believe that there are relatively low existing penetration rates in our markets, and that competitors could acquire significant numbers of customers and establish significant market share within a relatively short period of time. Furthermore, the newspaper and print media industry in China is highly regulated at present which may have the effect of limiting competition and keeping prices, including print advertising prices, at higher levels. Any deregulation of the print media industry may result in increased competition and a material decrease in advertising rates, including the prices we charge for our print advertising services. Increased competition could result in a loss of market share and revenues, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

A slowdown or adverse development in the PRC economy may have a material and adverse impact on our customers, demand for our services and our business.

Substantially all of our operations are conducted in China and a significant majority of our revenues are generated from providing recruitment advertising services for PRC businesses or divisions of foreign firms operating in China. In an environment of slower economic growth or recession, employers may take actions such as hiring fewer permanent employees, engaging in hiring freezes, reducing the number of employees and curtailing spending on print advertising, online recruitment services and other human resource related services. For example, due to the impact of the global economic and financial market crisis and slowdown in China, we experienced a significant reduction in customer demand for our recruitment advertising services, which led to a decrease in sales for our print advertising business and a lower growth rate for our online recruitment services business in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009. If there are slowdowns or other adverse developments in China’s economic growth, our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flow may be materially and adversely affected.

If the use of advertising to conduct recruitment does not achieve broader acceptance in China, we may be unable to expand our recruitment advertising businesses.

We believe that the use of advertising services by employers for recruitment remains relatively low in China, particularly for small and medium sized enterprises. Other recruitment channels, such as job fairs, personal referrals and professional networks, are also commonly utilized by the private sector in China. As a result, we face challenges in promoting greater use of advertising, which involves, among other things, significant changes in the way that employers disseminate information about jobs, the way that prospective employees search and apply for jobs, and the way in which hiring decisions are made. We cannot assure you that recruitment advertising will achieve broader acceptance in China. Any significant failure of advertising to gain acceptance among employers and job seekers may adversely affect our ability to expand our recruitment advertising businesses.

If the Internet, and online advertising in particular, does not achieve broad acceptance in China as a medium for recruitment, our online recruitment services business may be adversely affected.

We generate a majority of our revenues from online recruitment services, which are targeted toward employers and job seekers who use the Internet. As part of our online recruitment services, we offer general online advertising on our website, which is an important element in our ability to sell online recruitment advertisements to employers and which generates a material portion of our revenues. China has only recently begun to develop the Internet as a commercial medium and has a low Internet penetration rate relative to most developed countries. Our future results of operations from online recruitment services will depend substantially upon an increase in Internet penetration and an increase in acceptance and use of the Internet for the distribution of services and for the facilitation of commerce in China. In addition, as Internet penetration rates vary widely across the different cities and regions of China, the level of acceptance of online recruitment services may be low in certain geographies for an extended period of time, which may negatively impact our operations in those markets. Moreover, unless they are resolved, telecommunication capacity constraints may impede further development of the Internet to the extent that users experience delays, transmission errors and other difficulties. Any negative perceptions as to the effectiveness of online recruitment services, or online advertising in general, or any significant failure of the Internet to gain acceptance as a medium for recruitment may adversely affect our online recruitment services business.

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If we are unable to maintain economies of scale with respect to our recruitment advertising businesses, our results of operations from these businesses may be materially and adversely affected.

We incur fixed costs relating to website connectivity, maintenance, design and operation in our online business. We also incur fixed costs such as printing, distribution, direct marketing, advertising, management, staff, office, infrastructure and utilities in each of our geographic markets in connection with operating our print advertising business and a network of our local sales offices. Our ability to achieve desired operating margins in our recruitment advertising businesses depends largely on our success in generating a sufficient amount of revenues from recruitment advertisements to offset the associated fixed costs. In addition, to drive employer and job seeker acceptance of www.51job.com and 51job Weekly as attractive media for posting and finding jobs, we need to maintain a critical mass of recruitment advertisements. If we are unable to maintain sufficient economies of scale in any or all of our geographic markets in connection with our recruitment advertising businesses, our results of operations from these businesses may be materially and adversely affected.

The market for other human resource related services, including business process outsourcing, remains in the development stage in China and we may be unable to expand such existing services or successfully develop new services in this area.

We believe the market for other human resource related services, including business process outsourcing, is at an early stage of development in China. Many employers are unfamiliar with these services and may not accept the value proposition of these service offerings. Processing, tracking, collecting and remitting funds to the applicable regulatory agencies, employees and other third parties are complex operations, and many employers may not trust us with employee data or to make representations and cash payments on their behalf. As such, companies may not be willing to use our services for significant administrative functions and may instead choose to continue to perform such operations in-house.

If we are unable to establish a nationwide capability, effectively monitor ongoing changes in PRC laws and regulations, acquire, develop and use up-to-date business and management technology and software, including advanced computer and technology systems that could require significant capital expenditures, and maintain the integrity and security of our systems and process flow, we may be unable to expand our business process outsourcing operations or gain wider customer acceptance for these services. In addition, we rely on a number of third party service providers, including couriers, agents and banks. Failure by these providers, for any reason, to deliver their services in a timely and accurate manner could result in significant disruptions to our business process outsourcing operations, impact our client relationships, harm our brand and result in significant penalties or liabilities to us.

In addition, as part of our strategy to be a “one-stop” human resource services provider, we may decide to develop new services in the area of other human resource related services. We cannot assure you that we will be able to deliver new products or services on a commercially viable basis or in a timely manner, or at all. If any of our efforts to develop or operate new human resource related services are unsuccessful, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Any failure by us to manage the progressing shift in user habits and advertising expenditures from print to online media could materially and adversely affect our overall results of operations.

We have historically generated a meaningful portion of our revenues from our print advertising business, which accounted for 34.2% of our revenues in 2009, 25.5% of our revenues in 2010 and 15.2% of our revenues in 2011. Since 2008, we have experienced a decrease in our print advertising revenues, impacted by a decline in market demand resulting from the global economic and financial market crisis and the slower economic growth in China in 2008 and 2009, as well as the ongoing, progressive shift in user habits and advertising expenditures from print to online media. Since 2010, we have discontinued print advertising operations in 11 cities, and we are allocating greater resources to focus on our online recruitment and business process outsourcing businesses. If we are not able to generate sufficient revenues from our online recruitment services or other businesses to offset the loss of revenues from our print advertising business, our overall results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

We are dependent on local newspaper contractors in each of our geographic markets to publish and distribute 51job Weekly.

In the PRC, entities engaged in publishing activities are required by the government to have a publishing license. We do not have any publishing licenses. We are, and will continue to be, dependent on contractual arrangements with

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local newspapers in each of our geographic markets in order to publish and distribute 51job Weekly. Our arrangements with our local newspaper contractors require them to print, publish and distribute 51job Weekly as an insert in their newspaper.

The term of our agreements with local newspaper contractors is generally two years or less. In addition, certain of these agreements are subject to early termination by either party on various grounds. We cannot assure you that our local newspaper contractors will conduct their activities in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations governing the publishing, distribution and sale of newspapers. In addition, we cannot assure you that:

·                       our local newspaper contractors will fulfill their obligations under our agreements;

·                       the agreements will be renewed on terms acceptable to us or at all;

·                       our current contractors will not, upon termination of our agreements, seek to compete directly against us or establish relationships with one or more of our competitors; or

·                       in the event that we wish to do so or it is necessary to do so, we will be able to locate and enter into an agreement with a suitable alternative local newspaper on a timely basis or at all.

In addition, we may experience lower levels of readership and circulation if we lose the support of a local newspaper contractor or change the newspaper contractor in one of our markets. Any adverse developments involving our local newspaper contractors could significantly disrupt or impair the publication, promotion and distribution of 51job Weekly and materially and adversely affect our print advertising business.

Due to seasonal variations in demand for human resource services, we experience material fluctuations in our revenue streams which affect our ability to predict our quarterly results and which may also cause quarterly results to vary from period to period.

We experience material fluctuations in our revenue streams which affect our ability to predict quarterly results. For example, in the periods following the Chinese New Year holiday in the first quarter and the National Day holiday in October, we historically experience an increase in recruitment activity. During these peak periods, demand for recruitment advertising and other human resource related services may or may not rise significantly depending on the needs of employers as well as their perceptions of the job market. In addition, the Chinese New Year holiday is based on the lunar calendar, which varies from year to year and affects our first quarter results and their comparability to financial results of the same quarter in prior years. We also have observed seasonal campus recruitment activity by employers in the fourth quarter of each year but a general slowdown in overall recruitment activity at calendar year end. Due to these factors, our revenues may vary materially from quarter to quarter and quarterly results may not be comparable to the corresponding periods of prior years. Such uncertainty makes it difficult for us to predict revenues for a particular quarter. Therefore, actual results may differ significantly from our targets or estimated quarterly results, which could cause the price of our ADSs to fall.

Our print advertising business is subject to weekly fluctuations which hamper our ability to predict when revenue will ultimately be recognized, if at all.

Due to the transactional nature of print advertising, we are unable to predict future revenues with any high degree of certainty. Orders for print advertisements are generally placed week-to-week and advertisers may cancel or postpone their print advertisements within days of publication. We do not recognize revenue until an advertisement is printed in 51job Weekly. Delays or cancellations by advertisers hamper our ability to predict when revenue will ultimately be recognized, if at all. Such uncertainty makes it difficult for us to accurately forecast revenues for a particular quarter. Therefore, actual results may differ significantly from our targets or estimated quarterly results, which could cause the price of our ADSs to fall.

We are dependent on our Internet service providers, and we are vulnerable to failures of the Internet, fixed line telecommunications networks in China and our technology platform.

Our online businesses are heavily dependent on the performance and reliability of China’s Internet infrastructure, the continual accessibility of bandwidth and servers to our service providers’ networks, and the continuing performance, reliability and availability of our technology platform.

We rely on China Telecommunications Corporation, or China Telecom, and China United Network Communications Group Company Limited, or China Unicom, to provide us with bandwidth and server custody service for our services. We are unlikely to have any access to alternative networks or services in the event of disruptions, failures or other problems with China’s Internet infrastructure or the fixed telecommunications networks of China Telecom or China Unicom, or if China Telecom or China Unicom otherwise fail to provide such services. In addition, we have no control over the costs of the services provided by China Telecom or China Unicom. If China

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Telecom or China Unicom fails to provide these services, we would be required to seek other providers, and there is no assurance that we will be able to find alternative providers willing or able to provide high quality services and there is no assurance that such providers will not charge us higher prices for their services. If the prices that we are required to pay for Internet services rise significantly, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

If we are unable to protect or promote our brand names and reputation, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

If we fail to generate a high volume of recruitment advertisements, maintain our relationships with local newspaper contractors, successfully promote and develop the perception of www.51job.com as a “destination site,” undertake effective marketing and promotional activities, and generally provide high quality services, we may not be successful in protecting or promoting our brand names and reputation in a cost-effective manner or at all. We may dedicate significantly greater resources in the future to advertising, marketing and other promotional efforts aimed at building awareness of our brands. Any significant damage to our reputation, the perceived quality or awareness of our brand names or services, or any significant failure on our part to promote and protect our brand names and reputation could make it more difficult for us to successfully attract job seekers, compete for customers or retain qualified personnel, which may have a material adverse effect on our business.

If we are unable to prevent others from using our intellectual property, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

Our intellectual property has been, and will continue to be, subject to various forms of theft and misappropriation. Competitors copy and distribute content from our www.51job.com website, from 51job Weekly and from the training materials that we use, and utilize misleadingly similar Internet domain names and URLs in an effort to divert Internet traffic away from our website. We are also susceptible to others copying our business model and methods. The legal protection of trademarks, trade names, copyrighted material, domain names, trade secrets, know-how and other forms of intellectual property in the PRC is significantly more limited than in the United States and many other countries and may afford us little or no effective protection. Preventing unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult, time consuming and expensive. Misappropriation of our content, trademarks and other intellectual property could divert significant business to our competitors, damage our brand name and reputation, and require us to initiate litigation that could be expensive and divert management resources from the operation of our businesses.

We rely heavily on our senior management team and key personnel, and the loss of any of their services could severely disrupt our business.

Our future success is highly dependent on the ongoing efforts of the members of our senior management and key personnel, in particular on Rick Yan, our chief executive officer. We rely heavily on his management skills and his expertise in consumer products, marketing and technology. We do not maintain key man life insurance on any of our senior management or key personnel. The loss of the services of one or more of our senior executives or key personnel, Mr. Yan in particular, may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Competition for senior management and key personnel is intense, and the pool of suitable candidates is very limited, and we may not be able to retain the services of our senior executives or key personnel, or attract and retain senior executives or key personnel in the future.

In addition, if Mr. Yan, any other members of our senior management or any of our other key personnel joins a competitor or forms a competing company, we may not be able to replace them easily and we may lose customers, business partners, key professionals and staff members. Each of our senior executives has entered into an employment agreement with us, which contains confidentiality and non-competition provisions. In the event of a dispute between any of our senior executives and us, we cannot assure you as to the extent, if any, that these provisions may be enforceable in the PRC due to uncertainties involving the PRC legal system.

Our business may suffer if we do not successfully manage our current and potential future growth.

We have grown significantly since we commenced operations in 1998 and we intend to continue to expand in size and increase the number of services we provide. Our anticipated future growth will place significant demands on our management and operations. Our success in managing this growth will depend to a significant degree on the ability of our executive officers and other members of senior management to operate effectively both independently and as a group, and on our ability to improve and develop our financial and management information systems, controls and procedures. In addition, we will have to successfully adapt our existing systems and introduce new systems, expand, train and manage our workforce, and improve and expand our sales and marketing capabilities. For example, we plan to triple the size of our national sales and customer service call center in Wuhan in 2013 with the

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purchase of an additional building. If we are unable to properly manage our operations or our services in existing markets, or the quality of our services deteriorates due to mismanagement, we could significantly damage our brand name and reputation, which would adversely affect our ability to expand our customer base.

If we are unable to successfully detect and prevent criminal actions or fraud perpetrated on us, we may be subject to liability and financial loss.

The management of our business process outsourcing services involves the collection of payments from our customers and the disbursement of funds on their behalf by our employees and agents. In addition, due to the difference in timing between cash receipts and remittances, we may receive from time to time short-term deposits and advances in client funds and/or make short-term prepayments on behalf of our customers to be reimbursed to us. As a result, we are exposed to theft, embezzlement and other criminal and fraudulent activity by our employees, our agents and third parties. For example, we identified some irregularities, non-compliance to contract terms and misappropriation of funds by a third party in Beijing in 2007. If we are unable to successfully detect and prevent criminal or fraudulent activity, our results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.

Because we operate in a new and evolving market, our operating history may not serve as an adequate basis to judge our future prospects and results of operations.

Although we have been profitable since 2002, we cannot assure you that we will maintain our profitability or that we will not incur net losses in the future. As we operate in a new and rapidly evolving market, we expect that our operating expenses will increase as we expand in size and increase the scope of services we provide. Any significant delay or failure to realize anticipated revenue growth could result in significant operating losses. We may encounter risks and difficulties including our potential failure to:

·                       implement our business model and strategy and adapt and modify them as needed;

·                       increase awareness of our brands, protect our reputation and develop customer loyalty;

·                       anticipate with any degree of certainty the behavioral and operational changes of our customers that have a significant impact on our business from time to time as they respond to evolving social, economic and political changes in China;

·                       manage our expanding operations and service offerings, including the integration of any future acquisitions;

·                       maintain adequate control of our expenses;

·                       adequately and efficiently operate, maintain, upgrade and develop our website and the other systems and equipment we utilize in providing our services;

·                       attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; and

·                       anticipate and adapt to changing conditions in the online, print and other markets in which we operate as well as the impact of any changes in government regulation, mergers and acquisitions involving our competitors, technological developments and other significant competitive and market dynamics.

If we are not successful in addressing any or all of these risks, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

We may not be able to successfully execute future acquisitions or efficiently manage any acquired business.

We may decide to expand, in part, by acquiring certain complementary or new businesses in the future. The success of any material acquisition will depend upon several factors, including:

·                       our ability to identify and acquire businesses on a cost-effective basis;

·                       our ability to integrate acquired personnel, operations, products and technologies into our organization effectively; and

·                       our ability to retain and motivate key personnel and to retain the clients of acquired firms.

Any such acquisition may require a significant commitment of management time, capital investment and other resources. If we are unable to effectively integrate an acquired business or are required to incur restructuring and other charges to complete an acquisition, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. In addition, if we use our equity securities as consideration for acquisitions, we may dilute the value of your ADSs. We have not engaged in any material acquisitions in our history.

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If we are unable to attract and retain qualified personnel, our business process outsourcing, training and executive search businesses may be materially and adversely affected.

The success of our business process outsourcing, training and executive search services depends heavily on our ability to attract and retain skilled personnel. Our business of performing traditional human resource department functions such as payroll, benefits and compliance management and related services for customers on an outsourced basis depends on having personnel with expertise in local and national PRC government employment regulations, payroll management and other human resource department functions. The success of our training business depends on personnel with the necessary skills to conduct and support our training seminars and other activities and services in this business. Similarly, our ability to provide high quality executive search services depends on a dedicated team of consultants with expertise and relationships in the geographic markets and industries in which our clients seek candidates. If we are unable to attract and retain critical skilled personnel, our business process outsourcing, training and executive search businesses may be materially and adversely affected.

New and future government regulations may significantly increase the number of labor disputes, which may result in higher operating costs for our business process outsourcing business.

The PRC Labor Contract Law, which became effective on January 1, 2008, establishes restrictions and increases costs for employers, including specific provisions related to fixed-term employment contracts, temporary employment, probation, consultation with the labor union and employee assembly, employment without a contract, dismissal of employees, compensation upon termination and overtime work, and collective bargaining. In addition, under the Regulations on Paid Annual Leave for Employees, which became effective on January 1, 2008, employees who have served more than one year for an employer are entitled to a paid vacation ranging from five to fifteen days, depending on their length of service. Employees who waive such vacation time at the request of employers shall be compensated for three times their regular salaries for each waived vacation day.

Following the implementation of the PRC Labor Contract Law, we have observed an increase in the number of labor disputes between employers and workers relating to its interpretation and application. Through our business processing outsourcing business, we provide professional services to manage human resource administrative functions for employers on an outsourced basis. The resolution of such labor disputes may require significant costs and resources, including the time our personnel spend dealing with increased human resource administration and legal issues for which we may not be compensated. If we incur higher operating costs for our business process outsourcing business, our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

If we choose to develop or introduce new products and services outside of the human resource services industry in China, these efforts may not be successful, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

In August 2007, we entered into an agreement with our shareholder, Recruit Co., Ltd., or Recruit, a privately held human resource and information services company in Japan, to form a new company under Area Link Co., Ltd., or Area Link, which is a holding company affiliated with Recruit, to provide coupon advertising services in China. Under the terms of the agreement as amended in August 2009, we may provide up to RMB32.8 million in financing to Area Link for the coupon company and have the ability to acquire up to 40% of Area Link’s share capital. Because we lack experience and expertise in operating coupon advertising services, we rely on Recruit to manage this business. During our periodic review of these investments in Area Link in the second quarter of 2011, we determined that the carrying value of these investments were not recoverable due to changing market conditions and operational developments. As a result, we recognized a loss from impairment of RMB15.1 million (US$2.4 million), the total amount of our investments. If we choose to develop or introduce other new products and services outside of the human resource services industry in China in the future, we cannot assure you that we will be able to do so on a commercially viable basis or in a timely manner, or at all. If any of our efforts to begin or operate a business outside of the human resource services industry are not successful, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We may be subject to liability for placing advertisements with content that is deemed inappropriate.

PRC laws and regulations prohibit advertising companies from producing, distributing or publishing any advertisement that contains any content that violates laws and regulations, impairs the national dignity of the PRC, involves designs of the national flag, national emblem or national anthem or the music of the national anthem of the PRC, is reactionary, obscene, superstitious or absurd, is fraudulent, or disparages similar products. If we are deemed to be in violation of such regulations, we may be subject to penalties including confiscation of the illegal revenues, levying of fines and suspension or revocation of our business license or advertising license, any of which may materially and adversely affect our business.

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We are subject to potential legal liability from both employers and job seekers with respect to our other human resource related services, in particular our executive search and business process outsourcing businesses.

We are exposed to potential claims associated with the recruitment process, including claims by clients seeking to hold us liable for recommending a candidate who subsequently proves to be unsuitable for the position filled, claims by current or previous employers of our candidates alleging interference with employment contracts, claims by candidates against us alleging our failure to maintain the confidentiality of their employment search or alleging discrimination or other violations of employment law or other laws or regulations by our clients, and claims by either employers or their workers alleging the failure of our business process outsourcing services to comply with laws or regulations relating to employment, employee’s insurance or benefits, individual income taxes or other matters. Any such claims, regardless of merit, may force us to participate in time-consuming, costly litigation or investigation, divert significant management and staff attention, and damage our reputation and brand names. We do not maintain insurance coverage for liabilities arising from claims by employers, employees, candidates or third parties.

We may be exposed to infringement or misappropriation claims by third parties, which, if successful, could cause us to pay significant damage awards.

Third parties may bring claims against us alleging patent, trademark or copyright infringement, or misappropriation of their creative ideas or formats, or other infringement of their proprietary intellectual property rights. Any such claims, regardless of merit, may involve us in time-consuming, costly litigation or investigation, divert significant management and staff attention, require us to enter into expensive royalty or licensing arrangements, prevent us from using important technologies, business methods, content or other intellectual property, result in monetary liability, or otherwise disrupt our operations.

We rely heavily on our information systems, and if our access to technology supporting our information systems is impaired or interrupted, or if we fail to further develop our technology, our operations may be seriously disrupted.

Our ability to store, retrieve, process and manage substantial amounts of information, including our client and candidate databases, is an important part of our operations and a critical component of our success. To achieve our strategic objectives and to remain competitive, we must further develop and enhance our information systems. This may require the acquisition of equipment and software and the development, either internally or through independent consultants, of new proprietary software. Our inability to design, develop, implement and utilize, in a cost-effective manner, information systems that provide the capabilities necessary for us to compete effectively, or any interruption or loss of our information processing capabilities, for any reason, could materially disrupt our operations.

If we are not able to respond successfully to technological or industry developments, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

The market for online products and services is characterized by rapid technological developments, frequent launches of new products and services, the introduction of new business models, changes in customer needs and behavior, and evolving industry standards. These developments may make our existing online recruitment services obsolete or less competitive. In order to respond to such developments, we may be required to undertake substantial efforts and incur significant costs. In the event that we do not successfully respond to such developments in a timely and cost-effective manner, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

Computer viruses and “hacking” may cause delays or interruptions on our systems and may reduce use of our services and damage our reputation and brand names.

Computer viruses and hacking may cause delays or other service interruptions on our systems. “Hacking” involves efforts to gain unauthorized access to information or systems or to cause intentional malfunctions, loss or corruption of data, software, hardware or other computer equipment. In addition, the inadvertent transmission of computer viruses could expose us to a material risk of loss or litigation and possible liability. Hacking and computer viruses could result in significant damage to our hardware and software systems and databases, disruptions to our business activities, including to our e-mail and other communications systems, breaches of security and the inadvertent disclosure of confidential or sensitive information, interruptions in access to our website through the use of “denial of service” or similar attacks, and other material adverse effects on our operations. To date, we have not been subject to significant targeted disruptions or “hacking” and we believe that difficulties we have experienced relating to the speed of the Internet service and web-hosting provided by China Telecom and China Unicom are consistent with the difficulties that affect Internet service in China generally. To date, our website has not gone off-line or been shut down for any significant period of time. We may incur significant costs to protect our systems

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and equipment against the threat of, and to repair any damage caused by, computer viruses and hacking. Moreover, if a computer virus or hacking affects our systems and is highly publicized, our reputation and brand names could be materially damaged and use of our services may decrease.

Our business could be adversely affected if our software contains bugs.

Our online systems, including the www.51job.com website, and our other applications, products and systems could contain undetected errors or “bugs” that could adversely affect their performance. Additionally, we regularly update and enhance our website and our other online systems and introduce new versions of our products and applications. The occurrence of errors in any of these may cause us to lose market share, harm our reputation and brand names, and materially and adversely affect our business.

We are controlled by a small number of our existing shareholders, whose interests may differ from other shareholders, and our board of directors has the power to discourage a change of control.

As of March 31, 2012, the following shareholders beneficially owned 36.3 million common shares:

·                       Recruit, which beneficially owned 23.4 million common shares, or approximately 41% of our outstanding common shares, and which is affiliated with Hisayuki Idekoba, one of our directors; and

·                       Rick Yan, our chief executive officer and a director, who beneficially owned 12.9 million common shares, or approximately 22% of our outstanding common shares.

These shareholders, together with our other executive officers and directors, beneficially owned approximately 39.0 million common shares. Accordingly, Recruit or Mr. Yan individually could have significant influence in determining the outcome of any corporate transaction or other matter submitted to the shareholders for approval, including mergers, consolidations and the sale of all or substantially all of our assets, election of directors and other significant corporate actions. In cases where their interests are aligned and they vote together, these shareholders will also have the power to prevent or cause a change in control. Without the consent of some or all of these shareholders, we may be prevented from entering into transactions that could be beneficial to us. In addition, these parties could violate their director or employment agreements with us or otherwise violate their fiduciary duties by diverting business opportunities from us to themselves or others. The interests of our largest shareholders may differ from the interests of our other shareholders.

In addition, our board of directors has the authority, without further action by our shareholders, to issue common and preferred shares of up to 20% by par value of all issued shares and to fix the powers and rights of these shares, including dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of redemption and liquidation preferences, any or all of which may be greater than the rights associated with our common shares. These provisions could have the effect of depriving you of an opportunity to sell your ADSs at a premium over prevailing market prices by discouraging third parties from seeking to obtain control of us in a tender offer or similar transaction.

There are significant uncertainties under the tax law in China and our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected if we are unable to maintain certain tax statuses. In addition, dividends we receive from our subsidiaries located in the PRC are subject to PRC withholding tax.

The Enterprise Income Tax Law of the PRC, or the EIT Law, which became effective January 1, 2008, applies a uniform 25% enterprise income tax, or EIT, rate to both foreign-invested enterprises and domestic enterprises. For enterprises that were established before the EIT Law was promulgated and were entitled to preferential tax rates under former tax laws and regulations, the EIT Law has granted a grace period of up to five years for these enterprises to gradually transition from their preferential tax rates to the standard rate of 25%. As a result, some of our subsidiaries in the special economic zones of Shanghai’s Pudong area and Shenzhen were subject to an EIT rate of 18% in 2008, 20% in 2009, 22% in 2010 and 24% in 2011, which is to be increased to 25% in 2012. In December 2009, our subsidiary, Qianjin Network Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., or Tech JV, was designated by relevant local authorities in Shanghai as a “High and New Technology Enterprise” under the EIT Law, which is subject to a preferential tax rate of 15% through 2011. Tech JV is entitled to a preferential 15% tax rate as long as it maintains the required qualifications, which is subject to review every three years. We cannot assure you that Tech JV will continue to qualify as a “High and New Technology Enterprise” when it is subject to reevaluation in the future. Tech JV will undergo a review with local tax authorities to renew its preferential tax status in 2012. In addition, there are uncertainties on how the EIT Law and its implementation rules will be enforced, and whether its future implementation may be consistent with its current interpretation. If the EIT rates of some of our PRC subsidiaries increase, our financial condition and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected.

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Under the EIT Law and related regulations, dividends, interests, rent or royalties payable by a foreign-invested enterprise, such as our PRC subsidiaries, to any of its foreign non-resident enterprise investors, and proceeds from the disposition of assets (after deducting the net value of such assets) by such foreign enterprise investor, shall be subject to a 10% withholding tax unless such foreign enterprise investor’s jurisdiction of incorporation has a tax treaty with China that provides for a reduced rate of withholding tax. We are incorporated in the Cayman Islands which does not have such a tax treaty with China. Undistributed profits earned by foreign-invested enterprises prior to January 1, 2008 are exempted from any withholding tax.

In addition, the State Council of PRC issued the Notice Regarding Unifying Rules of City Maintenance and Construction Tax and Education Expenses Surtax Applicable to Foreign-invested Enterprises and Domestic Enterprises and Individuals on October 18, 2010, or the State Council Notice No. 35. Under the State Council Notice No. 35, starting from December 1, 2010, the Interim Measures on City Maintenance and Construction Tax promulgated by the State Council in 1985 and the Interim Rules on Levying Education Expenses Surtax promulgated by the State Council in 1986, and relevant rules and measures promulgated thereafter shall also apply to foreign-invested enterprises, foreign enterprises and foreign individuals, including our entities Qian Cheng Wu You Network Information (Beijing) Co., Ltd., or WFOE, Shanghai Wang Ju Human Resource Consulting Co., Ltd., or Wang Ju, and Tech JV. Both city maintenance and construction tax and education expenses surtax are levied based on the value-added tax, consumer tax and business tax actually paid by the taxpayer. Depending on the location of the taxpayer, the tax rate of city maintenance and construction tax applicable could be 7%, 5% or 1%, and the tax rate of the education expense surtax applicable is currently 3%.

We may be deemed a PRC “resident enterprise” under the EIT Law, which could subject us to PRC taxation on our global income and may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Under the EIT Law and its implementation rules, enterprises incorporated under the laws of jurisdictions outside China with their “de facto management bodies” located within China may be considered PRC “resident enterprises” and therefore subject to an EIT rate of 25% on their worldwide income. Under the implementation regulations issued by the State Council relating to the EIT Law, “de facto management bodies” is defined as the bodies that have material and overall management control over the production and business operations, personnel, accounts and properties of an enterprise. However, it remains unclear how the PRC tax authorities will interpret such a broad definition. We are a Cayman Islands holding company and substantially all of our operational management is based in China. To our knowledge, there is a lack of clear guidance regarding the criteria pursuant to which the PRC tax authorities will determine the tax residency of a company under the EIT Law, other than for those enterprises established outside of China whose main holding investors are enterprises established in China, which is available. In addition, the EIT Law also provides that, if a resident enterprise directly invests in another resident enterprise, the dividends received by the investing resident enterprise from the invested enterprise are exempted from income tax, subject to certain conditions. If we are considered to be an enterprise established outside China with “de facto management bodies” located in China and thus a “resident enterprise,” we may be subject to the uniform 25% EIT rate as to our global income, which would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Under the EIT Law, dividends payable by us to our foreign investors and gains on the sale of our common shares or ADSs may become subject to PRC taxation.

If we are considered a PRC “resident enterprise” under the EIT Law, our shareholders and ADS holders who are deemed “non-resident enterprises” may be subject to an EIT rate of 10% upon the dividends payable by us or upon any gains realized from the transfer of our common shares or ADSs, if such income is deemed derived from China, provided that (i) such foreign enterprise investor has no establishment or place of business in China, or (ii) it has establishment or place of business in China but its income derived from China has no real connection with such establishment or place of business. If we are required under the EIT Law to withhold PRC income tax on dividends payable to our non-PRC investors that are “non-resident enterprises,” or if you are required to pay PRC income tax on any gains realized from the transfer of our common shares or ADSs, the value of your investment in common shares or ADSs may be materially and adversely affected.

We face uncertainty from the PRC’s Circular on Strengthening the Management of Enterprise Income Tax Collection of Income Derived by Non-resident Enterprises from Equity Transfers.

The PRC State Administration of Taxation issued the Circular on Strengthening the Management of Enterprise Income Tax Collection of Income Derived by Non-resident Enterprises from Equity Transfers, or Circular 698, on December 10, 2009, that addresses the transfer of equity by non-PRC tax resident enterprises. Under this Circular, the overseas controlling party that effectively controls a PRC resident enterprise through an overseas intermediate holding company, and “indirectly transfers” the equity interests in such PRC resident enterprise by selling all shares

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of the intermediate holding company, is required to report such transfer to the PRC tax authority if the intermediate holding company is located in a foreign jurisdiction that has an effective tax rate of less than 12.5% or does not levy tax on such foreign-sourced capital gains of its residents. If the intermediate holding company mainly serves as tax avoidance vehicle and does not have any reasonable business purpose, the PRC in-charge tax authority may, upon verification of the PRC State Administration of Taxation, disregard the intermediate holding company and re-characterize the equity transfer by referring to its economic essence, and as a result, the overseas controlling party may be subject to a 10% PRC withholding tax for the capital gains realized from the equity transfer.

We do not believe that the transfer of our common shares or ADSs by our non-PRC shareholders would be treated as an indirect transfer of equity interests in our PRC subsidiaries subject to Circular 698, as the share transfer is not carried out for the main purposes of avoiding PRC taxes. However, there is uncertainty as to the interpretation and application of Circular 698 by the PRC tax authorities in practice. If you are required to pay PRC withholding tax on the transfer of our common shares or ADSs, your investment in us may be materially and adversely affected. In addition, we cannot predict how Circular 698 will affect our financial condition or results of operations. For example, we may be required to expend valuable resources to comply with Circular 698 or to establish that we should not be taxed under Circular 698, any of which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Our earnings have been and will continue to be adversely affected by changes in our accounting policies, including those related to the expensing of stock options.

In 2006, we adopted Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC, 718 “Compensation — Stock Compensation,” or ASC 718, which requires that stock-based compensation transactions, such as stock option grants, be accounted for using a fair value based method and recognized as expenses in our consolidated statement of operations. We use the Black-Scholes option pricing model to determine the fair value of stock options grants under ASC 718. This method is based upon, among other things, the volatility of our ADSs, which has been historically high. Therefore, the adoption of ASC 718 negatively affects our profitability and the trading price of our ADSs. The implementation of ASC 718 could also limit our ability to continue to use stock options as an incentive and retention tool, which could, in turn, hurt our ability to recruit employees and retain existing employees. Other new accounting pronouncements and varying interpretations of accounting pronouncements have occurred and may occur in the future. The change to existing rules, future changes, if any, or the questioning of current practices may adversely and materially affect our earnings.

If we do not appropriately maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, our business, results of operations and the market price of our ADSs may be materially and adversely affected.

We are subject to reporting obligations under the U.S. securities laws. The SEC, as required under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, adopted rules requiring every public company to include a management report on such company’s internal control over financial reporting in its annual report, which contains management’s assessment of the effectiveness of the company’s internal control over financial reporting. In addition, an independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the effectiveness of the company’s internal control over financial reporting. Our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2011. See “Item 15. — Controls and Procedures.”

However, if we fail to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, our management and our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting at a reasonable assurance level. This could in turn result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements and negatively impact the trading price of our ADSs. Furthermore, we have incurred and may need to incur additional costs and use additional management and other resources in an effort to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other requirements going forward.

We have no business insurance coverage.

Other than insurance for some of our properties, we do not maintain any insurance. We do not have any business liability insurance coverage for our operations. Any business disruption, litigation or natural disaster might result in substantial costs and diversion of resources.

We face risks related to health epidemics and other natural disasters.

Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of H1N1 flu, avian flu, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, or another epidemic or outbreak. China reported a number of cases of SARS in 2003, which

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resulted in the closure of many businesses by the PRC government to prevent the transmission of SARS. In recent years, there have been reports of occurrences of avian flu in various parts of China, including a few confirmed human cases and deaths. In 2009, the global spread of H1N1 flu resulted in several confirmed infections and deaths in China. Restrictions on travel resulting from any prolonged outbreak of H1N1 flu, avian flu, SARS or another epidemic or outbreak could adversely affect our ability to market and service new and existing customers throughout China. Our business operations could be disrupted if one of our employees is suspected of having H1N1 flu, avian flu, SARS or another health epidemic, which would require that a certain number of our employees be quarantined and/or our offices be disinfected. In addition, our results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent that H1N1 flu, avian flu, SARS or another outbreak harms the Chinese economy in general. We have not adopted any written preventive measures or contingency plans to combat any future epidemic.

We are also vulnerable to natural disasters and other calamities. Our servers are hosted in Shanghai and Tianjin. We have backup systems, but we cannot assure you that such backup systems will be adequate if there are problems, or that they will adequately protect us from the effects of fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, break-ins, war, riots, terrorist acts or similar events. Any of the foregoing events may give rise to server interruptions, breakdowns, system failures, technology platform failures and Internet failures, which could cause the loss or corruption of data or malfunctions of software or hardware as well as adversely affect our ability to provide our services to users. For example, after the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, we experienced business disruptions and suspended operations of www.51job.com during a three-day national mourning period.

We believe that we were not a passive foreign investment company, or a PFIC, for our taxable year ending on December 31, 2011, although there can be no assurance in this regard. However, we believe that we may become one in the future, which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors.

Based on the past composition of our income and valuation of our assets, including goodwill, we believe that we were not a PFIC for our taxable year ending on December 31, 2011, although there can be no assurance in this regard. However, due to the volatility of the market price of our common shares, as represented by our ADSs, we believe that we may become one in the future. Under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, the determination of whether we are a PFIC is made annually. Accordingly, our PFIC status for the current taxable year cannot be determined with certainty until after the close of the current taxable year. In particular, our PFIC status may be determined in large part based on the market price of our common shares, as represented by our ADSs, which is likely to fluctuate and may fluctuate considerably given that the global capital markets have been experiencing extreme volatility. Accordingly, fluctuations in the market price of common shares, as represented by our ADSs, may result in our being a PFIC in the current or any future taxable year.

In addition, there exist substantial uncertainties regarding the application, interpretation and enforcement of relevant current and future PRC laws and regulations and their potential effect on our corporate structure and contractual arrangements with certain of our affiliated PRC entities. There can be no assurance that the PRC regulatory authorities will not take a view different from those of our PRC counsel. Further, even if the uncertainties as to PRC laws and regulations did not exist, there are also substantial uncertainties as to the treatment of our corporate structure and ownership of these affiliated PRC entities for U.S. federal income tax purposes. If it is determined that we do not own the stock of the affiliated PRC entities for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we would likely be treated as a PFIC for our taxable year ending on December 31, 2011 and any taxable year thereafter.

If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which you hold our ADSs or common shares, such characterization could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to you if you are a U.S. investor. For example, if we are or become a PFIC, our U.S. investors may become subject to increased tax liabilities under U.S. federal income tax laws and regulations, and will become subject to burdensome reporting requirements. Moreover, non-corporate U.S. investors will not be eligible for reduced rates on taxation on any dividends received from us in taxable years beginning before January 1, 2013, if we are a PFIC in the taxable year in which such dividends are paid or in the preceding taxable year. See “Item 10. — Additional Information — Taxation — Certain United States Federal Income Tax Considerations — Passive Foreign Investment Company Rules.”

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

If the PRC authorities determine that our past ownership structure was inconsistent with the requirements for operating certain of our businesses, we could be subject to sanctions.

The PRC government has regulated foreign ownership in entities providing advertising and human resource related services. Prior to March 2004, PRC laws and regulations prohibited foreign persons from owning a controlling interest in advertising entities. This foreign ownership restriction was subsequently relaxed and foreign

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persons are now permitted to wholly own advertising entities in China. In addition, until November 2003, there were no PRC laws or regulations explicitly prohibiting or limiting foreign ownership in entities providing human resource related services. Foreign ownership in entities providing human resource related services was limited to 49% beginning in November 2003 and this ownership limitation has been increased to 70% since August 2006.

Prior to our restructuring in May 2004, 51net.com Inc., or 51net, our British Virgin Islands subsidiary and a foreign entity, owned 99% of Tech JV, which in turn owned, and continues to own, 80% of Shanghai Qianjin Advertising Co., Ltd., or AdCo. AdCo owned, and continues to own, 90% of its principal subsidiaries, or the AdCo Subsidiaries. During this period, Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries conducted a portion of our advertising and human resource services businesses. We have been advised by Jun He Law Offices, our PRC counsel, that the foreign ownership percentage of Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries prior to our restructuring was above the maximum foreign ownership permitted for an entity conducting advertising operations. In addition, we have been advised by our PRC counsel that, prior to our restructuring, the foreign ownership percentage of Tech JV was above the maximum foreign ownership permitted for an entity conducting human resource operations. In May 2004, we restructured our operations to comply with then existing PRC laws and regulations governing foreign ownership in entities conducting advertising and human resource related services. In connection with our restructuring, we informed relevant PRC governmental authorities that, historically, our foreign ownership percentage of Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries was not in compliance with limitations on foreign ownership of entities conducting advertising and human resources operations. However, we have not received any waiver from the PRC government with respect to this past non-compliance.

In addition, it is uncertain whether special governmental approval, which we did not obtain, was necessary for the establishment by AdCo of the AdCo Subsidiaries. In connection with our restructuring, we made inquiries with relevant PRC governmental authorities as to whether AdCo was required to obtain such approval before establishing the AdCo Subsidiaries. We have been unable to obtain any governmental ruling or advice on this matter.

The PRC government may determine that our ownership structure is or was inconsistent with or insufficient for the proper operation of our businesses, or that our business licenses or other approvals are or were not properly issued or not sufficient. For a discussion of the limitations on foreign ownership governing our businesses, see “Item 4. — Information on the Company — Business Overview — Regulation — Limitations on Foreign Ownership of Our Businesses.”

If we or any of our subsidiaries or affiliated entities were found to be or to have been in violation of PRC laws or regulations governing foreign ownership of advertising or human resource services businesses, the relevant regulatory authorities would likely have broad discretion in dealing with such violation, including but not limited to:

·                       levying fines;

·                       revoking business licenses;

·                       restricting or prohibiting our use of proceeds from our initial public offering and any future offerings to finance our business and operations in China;

·                       requiring us to restructure the ownership structure or operations of our subsidiaries or affiliated entities; and/or

·                       requiring us to discontinue all or a portion of our business.

Any of these or similar actions could cause significant disruption to our business operations or render us unable to conduct a substantial portion of our business operations and may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on agreements with Qian Cheng, Run An and their respective shareholders to receive all of the beneficial interest of these entities.

PRC laws and regulations limit foreign investment in entities providing human resource related services and in entities operating as Internet content providers. Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries recognize substantially all of our revenues. The minority interests in Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries, which are direct or indirect subsidiaries of Tech JV, are held by Beijing Qian Cheng Si Jin Advertising Co., Ltd., or Qian Cheng, which is wholly owned by Beijing Run An Information Consultancy Co., Ltd., or Run An. Run An is jointly owned by David Weimin Jin and Tao Wang, two executive officers of our company. Through agreements with Qian Cheng, Run An and their respective shareholders, we have the substantial ability to control, bear all the economic risks of, and receive all the economic rewards from, Qian Cheng and Run An. As a result, we consolidate all of these interests for U.S. GAAP reporting purposes.

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As we rely on the agreements with Qian Cheng and Run An to receive all their economic benefits, a significant disruption in these contractual relationships as a result of governmental sanction or otherwise could result in our being required to restructure our operations which could result in a significant expenditure of resources. In addition, if we are unable to consolidate the minority interests in Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries, our results of operations would reflect Qian Cheng’s minority interest in these entities which, if not otherwise consolidated, would result in a significant reduction in our reported net income. For a description of our contractual arrangements with these entities, see “Item 7. — Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions — Related Party Transactions — Contractual Arrangements Among Our Group Entities.”

Our contractual arrangements with Qian Cheng may not be as effective in providing operational control as direct ownership of this business.

We rely on our contractual arrangements with Qian Cheng, in which we have no direct ownership interest, to realize all of the economic rewards from Qian Cheng’s minority interests in Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries. Our contractual arrangements with Qian Cheng and its shareholders may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing control over their operations. Qian Cheng and its shareholders may refuse to make payments or otherwise refuse to perform their contractual obligations necessary for us to realize the economic rewards relating to Qian Cheng’s minority interests in Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries. In addition, the contractual arrangements which provide us with the substantial ability to control Qian Cheng may be unenforceable and its shareholders may refuse to renew these contractual arrangements. In any such event, we will have to rely on the PRC legal system to enforce our rights. In many cases, the laws and regulations governing the enforcement and performance of contractual arrangements are significantly more limited than in the United States and many other countries and may afford us little or no effective protection. If we are unable to enforce our rights, or if we suffer any significant delays or other obstacles in the process of enforcing these contractual arrangements, we may be unable to receive all of the economic rewards from Qian Cheng. As a result, we may be required to restructure our operations which would likely entail a significant expenditure of resources. We cannot assure you that any such restructuring would be effective or would not result in similar or other difficulties. For a description of these contractual arrangements, see “Item 7. — Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions — Related Party Transactions — Contractual Arrangements Among Our Group Entities.”

If we or any of our subsidiaries or affiliated entities were found to be in violation of PRC laws or regulations, the relevant regulatory authorities would likely have broad discretion in dealing with such violation, including but not limited to:

·                       levying fines;

·                       revoking business licenses;

·                       restricting or prohibiting our use of proceeds from our initial public offering and any future offerings to finance our business and operations in China;

·                       requiring us to restructure the ownership structure or operations of our subsidiaries or affiliated entities; and/or

·                       requiring us to discontinue all or a portion of our business.

Any of these or similar actions could cause significant disruption to our business operations or render us unable to conduct a substantial portion of our business operations and may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The PRC laws and regulations governing our business operations and contractual arrangements are uncertain, and if we are found to be in violation, we could be subject to sanctions. In addition, any changes in such PRC laws and regulations may have a material and adverse effect on our business.

There are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of PRC laws and regulations, including but not limited to the laws and regulations governing our business, or the enforcement and performance of our contractual arrangements in the event of the imposition of statutory liens, death, bankruptcy and criminal proceedings. We and our subsidiaries are considered foreign persons or foreign funded enterprises under PRC laws, and, as a result, we are required to comply with PRC laws and regulations, including those governing foreign ownership in the human resource services and Internet content industries. These laws and regulations may be subject to future changes, and their official interpretation and enforcement may involve substantial uncertainty. The effectiveness of newly enacted laws, regulations or amendments may be delayed, resulting in detrimental reliance by foreign investors. New laws and regulations that affect existing and proposed future businesses may also be applied retroactively. In addition, the PRC authorities retain broad discretion in dealing with violations of laws and regulations, including levying fines, revoking business licenses and requiring actions necessary for compliance. In

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particular, licenses, permits and beneficial treatments issued or granted to us by relevant governmental bodies may be revoked at a later time under contrary findings of higher regulatory bodies. We cannot predict what effect the interpretation of existing or new PRC laws or regulations may have on our businesses. We may be subject to sanctions, including fines, and could be required to restructure our operations. As a result of these substantial uncertainties, we cannot assure you that we will not be found in violation of any current or future PRC laws or regulations.

Under equity pledge agreements, the shareholders of our Chinese affiliated entities have pledged their respective equity interests to us. On March 16, 2007, the PRC Property Law was promulgated and took effect on October 1, 2007. According to the PRC Property Law, a pledge of the equity interest of a company in China cannot be legally established until it is duly registered with the relevant administration of industry and commerce. On September 1, 2008, the Measures on Registration of Pledge of Equity Interest with the Administration of Industry and Commerce was promulgated by the PRC State Administration of Industry and Commerce and took effect on October 1, 2008, which contains the procedure for registration of a pledge of the equity interest of a company. Because the pledges under the equity pledge agreements between WFOE and the shareholders of Qian Cheng and Run An were entered into prior to the effective date of these measures, the pledge agreements have not yet been registered with the relevant administration of industry and commerce, and as such, we cannot assure you about the effectiveness of these pledges. We are making efforts to register the pledges with the administration.

If we or any of our subsidiaries or affiliated entities or any of our contractual arrangements are found to be or to have been in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, the relevant regulatory authorities would likely have broad discretion in dealing with such violation, including but not limited to:

·                       levying fines;

·                       revoking business licenses;

·                       restricting or prohibiting our use of proceeds from our initial public offering and any future offerings to finance our business and operations in China;

·                       requiring us to restructure the ownership structure or operations of our subsidiaries or affiliated entities; and/or

·                       requiring us to discontinue all or a portion our business.

Any of these or similar actions could cause significant disruption to our business operations or render us unable to conduct a substantial portion of our business operations and may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are unable to quantify the likelihood that any sanctions would be imposed or the magnitude of the effect of any such sanctions on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our subsidiaries face limitations on paying dividends or making other distributions to us.

We are a holding company and rely substantially on dividends, royalty payments and license fees paid under trademark license agreements and certain other contractual arrangements paid to us by our subsidiaries and affiliated entities in the PRC to finance our operations and to pay dividends to our shareholders. These royalty payments and license fees paid under trademark license agreements and certain other contractual arrangements do not require governmental or other third party approval. However, the payment of dividends in China is subject to certain restrictions and taxes. PRC regulations currently permit payment of dividends only out of accumulated profits as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations.

Our subsidiaries and affiliated entities in the PRC are also required to set aside a portion of their after-tax profits according to PRC accounting standards and regulations to fund certain reserve funds that are not distributable as cash dividends. In addition, the PRC government imposes controls on the convertibility of the Renminbi into foreign currencies and, in certain cases, the remittance of currency out of the PRC. We may also experience difficulties in completing the administrative procedures necessary to obtain and remit foreign currency. See “Item 4. — Information on the Company — Business Overview — Regulation — Regulations Relating to Foreign Currency Exchange” and “— Regulations Relating to Dividend Distribution.” If we or any of our subsidiaries are unable to receive all of the revenues from our operations through these contractual or dividend arrangements, we may be unable to effectively finance our operations or pay dividends on our common shares.

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Risks Related to Doing Business in China

Our business could be affected by changes in China’s economic, political or social conditions or government policies.

The PRC economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including the amount of government involvement, level of development, growth rate, control of foreign exchange and allocation of resources. While the PRC economy has experienced significant growth in the past 30 years, growth has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy. We cannot assure you that the Chinese economy will continue to grow, or that if there is growth, such growth will be steady and uniform, or that if there is a slowdown, such slowdown will not have a negative effect on our business. For example, to restrain inflation and prevent the economy from overheating, the PRC government has instituted from time to time a number of tightening macroeconomic measures and monetary policies, including increasing interest rates, raising statutory reserve rates for banks and controlling bank lending to certain industries. However, in response to the impact of the global economic and financial market crisis which slowed China’s economic growth rate to 6.8% in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 6.1% in the first quarter of 2009, the PRC government loosened macroeconomic measures and monetary policies and announced an economic stimulus package of RMB4 trillion in November 2008. We cannot assure you that the various macroeconomic measures and monetary policies adopted by the PRC government to guide economic growth and the allocation of resources will be effective in sustaining the fast growth rate of the Chinese economy. In addition, even if these measures benefit the overall Chinese economy, they may impact the hiring behavior of employers and reduce the level of expenditures on human resource services, which would adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. For example, the PRC government could determine to limit the extent to which government controlled entities may use private sector businesses such as ours to service their human resource requirements. The PRC government could determine to develop and support government owned or controlled human resource enterprises in direct competition with us. The PRC government could also determine to more closely regulate the advertising, Internet content delivery or human resource industries, which could impose additional regulatory costs and burdens on us.

PRC laws and regulations governing operators of Internet websites are unclear and the regulation of the telecommunications and Internet industries may become more burdensome, and if we are found to be in violation of PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to sanctions.

The interpretation and application of existing PRC laws and regulations, the stated positions of the main governing authority, the PRC Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or the MIIT, and the possibility of new laws or regulations being adopted, have created significant uncertainty regarding the legality of existing and future foreign investments in, and the businesses and activities of, companies with Internet operations, including those of our company. In particular, the MIIT has stated that the activities of Internet content providers are subject to regulation by various PRC government authorities, depending on the specific activities conducted by the Internet content provider. In addition, PRC government regulation of the telecommunications and Internet industries is burdensome and may become even more so. New regulations could increase our costs of doing business and prevent us from efficiently delivering our services. Our failure to comply with applicable PRC Internet regulations could subject us to severe sanctions.

In July 2006, the MIIT issued the Notice on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign Investment in the Operation of Value Added Telecommunications Business, or the MIIT Notice. According to the MIIT Notice, foreign investors can only operate a telecommunications business in China by establishing a telecommunications enterprise with a valid telecommunications business operation license. Domestic value-added telecommunications services license holders are prohibited from leasing, transferring or selling telecommunications business operation licenses to foreign investors in any form, and from providing any resource, sites or facilities to foreign investors to facilitate the illegal operation of a telecommunications business in China. The MIIT Notice also requires that value-added telecommunications services license holders (including their shareholders) directly own the domain names and registered trademarks used by such value-added telecommunications services license holders in their daily operations. The MIIT Notice further requires each value-added telecommunications services license holder to have the necessary facilities for its approved business operations and to maintain such facilities in the regions covered by its license. In addition, all value-added telecommunications service providers are required to improve network and information security, draft relevant information safety administration regulations and set up networks and information safety emergency plans. The provincial communications administration bureaus in charge of telecommunications services are required to ensure that existing value-added telecommunications services license holders will conduct a self-assessment of their compliance with the MIIT Notice and submit status reports to the MIIT before November 1, 2006. For those who are not in compliance with the requirements above and fail to rectify the non-compliance within the limited period set by provincial communications administration bureaus, the provincial communications

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administration bureaus may revoke their operating licenses. Tech JV, our operating entity which provides online recruitment services, has obtained a value-added telecommunications business operation license permitting it to provide information service via the Internet and mobile networks. We may further modify our corporate structure to comply with these requirements.

The continued growth of the Chinese Internet market depends on the establishment of an adequate telecommunications infrastructure.

Although private sector Internet service providers currently exist in China, almost all access to the Internet is maintained through China Telecom and China Unicom under the administrative control and regulatory supervision of the MIIT. In addition, the national networks in China connect to the Internet through a government-controlled international gateway. This international gateway is the only channel through which a domestic user can connect to the international Internet network. We rely on this infrastructure and China Telecom and China Unicom to provide data communications capacity, primarily through local telecommunications lines. We cannot assure you that this infrastructure will be developed. We have no access to alternative networks or services, on a timely basis or if at all, in the event of disruptions, failures or other problems with China’s Internet infrastructure or telecommunications networks. The Internet infrastructure in China may not support the demands associated with continued growth in Internet use.

The PRC legal system has inherent uncertainties that could materially and adversely affect us.

The PRC legal system is based upon written statutes. Prior court decisions may be cited for reference but are not binding on subsequent cases and have limited value as precedents. Since 1979, the PRC legislative bodies have promulgated laws and regulations dealing with economic matters such as foreign investment, corporate organization and governance, commerce, taxation and trade. However, the PRC has not developed a fully integrated legal system and the array of new laws and regulations may not be sufficient to cover all aspects of economic activities in the PRC. In particular, because these laws and regulations are relatively new, and because of the limited volume of published decisions and their non-binding nature, the interpretation and enforcement of these laws and regulations involve uncertainties. In addition, published government policies and internal rules may have retroactive effects and, in some cases, the policies and rules are not published at all. As a result, we may be unaware of our violation of these policies and rules until some time later. Our contractual arrangements with our affiliated entities are governed by the laws of the PRC. The enforcement of these contracts and the interpretation of the laws governing these relationships is subject to uncertainty. See “— Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure — The PRC laws and regulations governing our business operations and contractual arrangements are uncertain, and if we are found to be in violation, we could be subject to sanctions.”

You may experience difficulties in effecting service of legal process, enforcing foreign judgments or bringing original actions in China based on United States or other foreign laws against us or our management.

We conduct substantially all of our operations in China and the majority of our assets are located in China. In addition, many of our directors and executive officers reside within China. As a result, it may not be possible to effect service of process within the United States or elsewhere outside China upon these directors or executive officers, including with respect to matters arising under U.S. federal securities laws or applicable state securities laws. Moreover, our PRC counsel has advised us that the PRC does not have treaties with the United States or many other countries providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgment of courts.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a U.S. regulator which oversees the inspections of audit firms which conduct audits of registrants which file financial statements with the SEC, is currently unable, due to governmental and political factors, to inspect the audit work and practices of registered audit firms in China.

Public company auditors are required by law to undergo regular Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, inspections to assess their compliance with U.S. law and professional standards in connection with their audits of public company financial statements filed with the SEC. Because our auditor is located in China, a jurisdiction where the PCAOB is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the PRC authorities, the audit work and practices of our auditor, like other registered audit firms operating in China, is currently not inspected by the PCAOB, due to various governmental and political factors. As a result, investors in U.S. markets who rely on audit reports from any Chinese audit firm are not able to factor the publicly reported findings of regular recurring PCAOB inspections of audit firms and their quality control practices into their decision making processes.

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Governmental control of currency conversion may affect the value of your investment.

The PRC government imposes controls on the convertibility of the Renminbi into foreign currencies and, in certain cases, the remittance of currency out of China. We receive substantially all of our revenues in Renminbi, which is currently not a freely convertible currency. Under our current structure, our income will be primarily derived from dividend payments from our PRC subsidiaries and other payments such as royalty and licensing fees. Shortages in the availability of foreign currency may restrict the ability of our PRC subsidiaries and our affiliated entities to remit sufficient foreign currency to pay dividends, royalty payments or other fees to us, or otherwise satisfy their foreign currency dominated obligations. Under existing PRC foreign exchange regulations, payments of current account items, including profit distributions, interest payments and expenditures from the transaction, can be made in foreign currencies without prior approval from the PRC State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or the SAFE, by complying with certain procedural requirements. However, approval from appropriate governmental authorities is required where Renminbi is to be converted into foreign currency and remitted out of China to pay capital expenses such as the repayment of bank loans denominated in foreign currencies. The PRC government may also at its discretion restrict access in the future to foreign currencies for current account transactions. If the foreign exchange control system prevents us from obtaining sufficient foreign currency to satisfy our currency demands, we may not be able to pay dividends in foreign currencies to our shareholders, including holders of our ADSs.

The fluctuation of the Renminbi may materially and adversely affect your investment.

The value of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar and other currencies may fluctuate and is affected by, among other things, changes in the PRC’s political and economic conditions. In July 2005, the PRC government changed its policy of pegging the value of the Renminbi to the U.S. dollar and permitted the Renminbi to fluctuate within a managed band against a basket of certain foreign currencies. In May 2007, the PRC government widened the daily trading band from 0.3% to 0.5%. The new policy resulted in an appreciation in the value of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar of approximately 6.5% in 2007, 6.5% in 2008, relatively unchanged in 2009, 3.3% in 2010 and 4.6% in 2011. Correspondingly, we reported a loss from foreign currency translation of RMB18.1 million in 2007, RMB17.7 million in 2008, RMB0.2 million in 2009, RMB6.8 million in 2010 and RMB9.4 million (US$1.5 million) in 2011. It is possible that the Chinese government could adopt a more flexible currency policy in the future, which could result in further and more significant revaluations of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar or any other foreign currency. As a portion of our assets are denominated in U.S. dollars, any future upward revaluations of the Renminbi will result in charges to our income statement and reductions in the value of these U.S. dollar denominated assets when translated into Renminbi.

In addition, as we rely substantially on dividends, royalty payments and other fees paid to us in Renminbi by our subsidiaries and affiliated entities in the PRC, any significant downward revaluation of the Renminbi may materially and adversely affect our cash flows, revenues and financial condition, and the value of, and any dividends payable on, our ADSs in foreign currency terms. Conversely, if we decide to convert our Renminbi into U.S. dollars for the purpose of making payments for dividends on our common shares or for other business purposes and the U.S. dollar appreciates against the Renminbi, the U.S. dollar equivalent of the Renminbi we convert would be reduced. For further information on our foreign exchange risks and certain exchange rates, see “Item 3. — Key Information — Selected Financial Data — Exchange Rate Information” and “Item 11. — Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk — Foreign Exchange Risk.”

PRC regulations relating to offshore investment activities by PRC residents and employee stock options granted by overseas-listed companies may increase our administrative burden and adversely impact our business and prospects. If our shareholders who are PRC residents fail to make any required registrations or filings under such regulations, we may be unable to distribute profits and may become subject to liability under PRC laws.

As part of our growth strategy, we may decide to expand, in part, by acquiring certain complementary or new businesses in the future, including companies incorporated in the PRC. The SAFE issued the Notice on Issues Relating to the Administration of Foreign Exchange in Fund-Raising and Round-trip Investment Activities of Domestic Residents Conducted via Offshore Special Purpose Companies in October 2005, which became effective in November 2005, or the SAFE Rules. According to the SAFE Rules, PRC citizens and foreign citizens who reside in China are required to register with the SAFE or its local branch office before establishing or controlling any company outside of China for the purpose of financing the offshore company with their ownership interests in the assets of or their interests in any Chinese enterprise. The offshore companies are referred to in the SAFE Rules as “offshore special purpose companies.” In addition, a PRC resident that is a shareholder of an offshore special purpose company is required to amend its SAFE registration with the local SAFE branch with respect to the offshore special purpose company in connection with the injection of equity interests or assets of a Chinese enterprise in the

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offshore company or overseas fund raising by the offshore company, or any other material change in the capital of the offshore company, including any increase or decrease of capital, transfer or swap of shares, merger, division, long-term equity or debt investment or creation of any security interest. The SAFE Rules apply retroactively. As a result, Chinese residents who have established or acquired control of offshore companies that have made onshore investments in China in the past are required to complete the relevant registration procedures with the applicable local SAFE authority. If any resident of China fails to register with the SAFE with respect to its ownership of an existing offshore entity, dividends remitted by the onshore entity to its overseas parent may be considered an evasion of foreign exchange administration rules, and therefore, may be subject to penalties under relevant PRC foreign exchange laws and regulations. In addition, failure to comply with registration procedures may result in restrictions on the relevant onshore entity, including prohibitions on the payment of dividends and other distributions to its offshore parent or affiliate and on capital inflow from the offshore entity.

Current regulations are still uncertain and unclear. It is possible that the relevant government authorities may promulgate new legislation to interpret, amend or implement the SAFE Rules in various ways. As a result, we cannot assure you that we or the owners of any target PRC business we may acquire, as the case may be, will be able to complete the necessary approval, filings and registrations for a proposed acquisition. This may restrict our ability to implement our acquisition strategy and adversely affect our business and prospects.

On March 28, 2007, the SAFE promulgated the Application Procedure of Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Employee Stock Holding Plan or Stock Option Plan of Overseas-Listed Company, or the Stock Option Rule, to regulate foreign exchange procedures for PRC individuals participating in employee stock holding and stock option plans of overseas companies. Under the Stock Option Rule, a PRC domestic individual must comply with various foreign exchange procedures through a domestic agent institution when participating in any employee stock holding plan or stock option plan of an overseas-listed company. Certain domestic agent institutions, such as the PRC subsidiaries of an overseas-listed company, a labor union of such company that is a legal person or a qualified financial institution, among others things, shall file with the SAFE and be responsible for completing relevant foreign exchange procedures on behalf of PRC domestic individuals, such as applying to obtain the SAFE approval for exchanging foreign currency in connection with owning stock or stock option exercises. Concurrent with the filing of such applications with the SAFE, the PRC subsidiary, as a domestic agent must obtain approval from the SAFE to open a special foreign exchange account at a PRC domestic bank to hold the funds in connection with the stock purchase or option exercise, any returns based on stock sales, any stock dividends issued and any other income or expenditures approved by the SAFE. The PRC subsidiary also is required to obtain approval from the SAFE to open an overseas special foreign exchange account at an overseas trust bank to hold overseas funds used in connection with any stock purchase. Under the Stock Option Rule, all proceeds obtained by PRC domestic individuals from sales of stock shall be fully remitted back to China after relevant overseas expenses are deducted. The foreign exchange proceeds from these sales can be converted into RMB or transferred to the individual’s foreign exchange savings account after the proceeds have been remitted back to the special foreign exchange account opened at the PRC domestic bank. If the stock option is exercised in a cashless exercise, the PRC domestic individuals are required to remit the proceeds to the special foreign exchange account. If we or our PRC optionees fail to comply with these regulations, we or our PRC optionees and their local employers may be subject to fines and legal sanctions.

On February 15, 2012, the SAFE promulgated the Circular on Certain Foreign Exchange Issues Relating to Domestic Individuals’ Participation in Stock Incentive Plan of Overseas Listed Company, or the New Stock Option Rule. Upon the effectiveness of the New Stock Option Rule on February 15, 2012, the Stock Option Rule became void, although the basic requirements and procedures provided under the Stock Option Rule are kept unchanged in the New Stock Option Rule, i.e., the domestic employees participating in stock incentive plan of an overseas listed company shall appoint the PRC subsidiary of the overseas listed company or a domestic qualified agent to make the registration of the stock incentive plan with the SAFE and handle all foreign exchange-related matters of the stock incentive plan through the special bank account approved by the SAFE. The New Stock Option Rule clarifies that the domestic subsidiary of an overseas listed company shall include the limited liability company, partnership and the representative office directly or indirectly established by such overseas listed company in China and the domestic employees shall include the directors, supervisors, the senior management and other employees of the domestic subsidiary, including the foreign employees of the domestic subsidiary who continuously reside in China for no less than one year. Similar with the Stock Option Rule, the New Stock Option Rule requires that the annual allowance with respect to the purchase of foreign exchange in connection with stock holding or stock option exercises shall be subject to the approval of the SAFE. The New Stock Option Rule further requires that the material amendments of the stock incentive plan shall be filed with the SAFE within three months following the occurrence of the material amendments. The domestic agent shall also make a quarterly update to the SAFE to disclose the information with respect to the stock option exercises, the stock holding and foreign exchange matters. If the domestic employees or the domestic agent fails to comply with the requirements of the New Stock Option Rule, the SAFE may require the remedy and even impose administrative penalties that the SAFE deems appropriate.

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Risks Related to Our ADSs

The market price for our ADSs may be volatile.

The market prices of the securities of companies with Internet related and online businesses have been extremely volatile and may be subject to wide fluctuations in response to factors including the following:

·                       actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly operating results;

·                       changes or revisions by us to previously released operating and financial targets;

·                       announcements by us or our competitors of new services, significant acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments;

·                       changes in financial estimates or recommendations by securities analysts;

·                       conditions in our industry, which is the market for recruitment advertising services and other human resource related services in China;

·                       additions or departures of key personnel;

·                       fluctuations of exchanges rates between the Renminbi and U.S. dollar; and

·                       pending or potential litigation or regulatory investigations.

In addition, the securities market has from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that are not related to the operating performance of particular companies. These market fluctuations may also materially and adversely affect the market price of our ADSs.

The future sales, or perceived future sales, by our existing shareholders of a substantial number of our ADSs in the public market or through private transactions could adversely affect the price of our ADSs.

If our shareholders sell, or are perceived as intending to sell, substantial amounts of our common shares or ADSs, including those issued upon the exercise of outstanding options, in the public market or through private transactions, the market price of our ADSs could fall. Such sales, or perceived potential sales, might make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem appropriate. Common shares held by our existing shareholders and our affiliates may also be sold in the public market under, and subject to the restrictions contained in, Rule 144 under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. See “Item 6. — Directors, Senior Management and Employees — Compensation — Stock-Based Compensation Plans” for a description of outstanding options to purchase our common shares.

Your right to participate in any future rights offerings may be limited, which may cause dilution of your holdings.

We may from time to time distribute rights to our shareholders, including rights to acquire our securities. Under the deposit agreement, the depositary bank will not offer you those rights unless the distribution to ADS holders of both the rights and any related securities is either registered under the Securities Act, or exempt from registration under the Securities Act. We are under no obligation to file a registration statement with respect to any such rights or securities or to endeavor to cause such a registration statement to be declared effective. Moreover, we may not be able to establish an exemption from registration under the Securities Act. Accordingly, you may be unable to participate in our rights offerings and may experience dilution in your holdings.

You may not be able to exercise your right to vote.

As a holder of ADSs, you may only exercise the voting rights with respect to the underlying common shares in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Under the deposit agreement, you must vote by giving voting instructions to the depositary. Upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will vote the underlying common shares in accordance with these instructions. Otherwise, you will not be able to exercise your right to vote unless you withdraw the shares. Under our fifth amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the minimum notice period required for convening either an annual general meeting or an extraordinary general meeting called to vote on matters requiring the approval of two thirds of the voting shares is 20 days. The minimum notice period for other extraordinary general meetings is 14 days. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient advance notice to withdraw the shares to allow you to vote with respect to any specific matter. If we ask for your instructions, the depositary will notify you of the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. We cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote your shares. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for the manner of carrying out voting instructions. This means that you may not be able to exercise your right to vote and there may be nothing you can do if the shares underlying your ADSs are not voted as you requested.

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You may not receive distributions on common shares or any value for them if it is illegal or impractical to make them available to you.

The depositary of our ADSs has agreed to pay to you the cash dividends or other distributions it or the custodian receives on common shares or other deposited securities after deducting its fees and expenses. You will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of common shares your ADSs represent. However, the depositary is not responsible if it decides that it is inequitable or impractical to make a distribution available to any holders of ADSs. For example, the depositary may determine that it is not feasible to distribute certain property through the mail. Additionally, the value of certain distributions may be less than the cost of mailing them. In these cases, the depositary may determine not to distribute such property. We have no obligation to register under U.S. securities laws any ADSs, common shares, rights or other securities received through such distributions. We also have no obligation to take any other action to permit the distribution of ADSs, common shares, rights or anything else to holders of ADSs. This means that you may not receive the distribution we make on our common shares or any value for them if it is illegal or impractical for us to make them available to you. These restrictions may have a material adverse effect on the value of your ADSs.

You may be subject to limitations on transfer of your ADSs.

Your ADSs represented by the ADRs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its transfer books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. In addition, the depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of ADSs generally when our books or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary thinks it advisable to do so because of any requirement of law or of any government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason.

You may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through the U.S. federal courts may be limited, because we are incorporated under Cayman Islands law.

We are a company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, and the majority of our assets are located outside the United States. In addition, many of our directors and executive officers are nationals or residents of jurisdictions other than the United States and all or a substantial portion of their assets are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process within the United States upon our directors or executive officers, or enforce judgments obtained in the United States courts against our directors or executive officers.

Our corporate affairs are governed by our memorandum and articles of association, the Cayman Islands Companies Law (2011 Revision), as amended and revised from time to time, and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities laws as compared to the United States, and some states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in a federal court of the United States.

The Cayman Islands courts are also unlikely:

·                       to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts of the United States based on certain civil liability provisions of U.S. securities laws; and

·                       to impose liabilities against us, in original actions brought in the Cayman Islands, based on certain civil liability provisions of U.S. securities laws that are penal in nature.

There is no statutory recognition in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, although the courts of the Cayman Islands will in certain circumstances recognize and enforce a non-penal judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits.

As a result of all of the above, public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a U.S. company.

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ITEM 4.            INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY

A.     History and Development of the Company

We commenced our business in 1998. Since our inception, we have conducted substantially all of our operations in China. In March 2000, our founders incorporated a new holding company, now called 51job, Inc., as an exempted limited liability company in the Cayman Islands under the Cayman Islands Companies Law (2011 Revision). Subsequently, 51job, Inc. acquired 51net.com Inc., or 51net, a British Virgin Islands company, and other subsidiaries to become the holding company of our corporate group. We operate as a foreign investment enterprise in China through our wholly owned subsidiaries, 51net, which is the registered owner of some of our trademarks and our domain name, 51net Beijing and 51net HR, which are both Cayman Islands companies, as well as our PRC subsidiaries and affiliated Chinese entities, the primary ones being:

·                       Shanghai Qianjin Advertising Co., Ltd., or AdCo, and AdCo’s one branch office, three majority owned subsidiaries and one jointly owned subsidiary with Tech JV, or, collectively, the AdCo Subsidiaries. AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries hold licenses and permits to conduct advertising businesses;

·                       Qianjin Network Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., or Tech JV, which is allowed to conduct online advertising and holds human resource related services and value-added telecommunications services licenses;

·                       Qian Cheng Wu You Network Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., or WFOE, which is wholly owned by 51net Beijing and owns certain of our trademarks and registered copyrights;

·                       Beijing Qian Cheng Si Jin Advertising Co., Ltd., or Qian Cheng, which is our joint venture partner in Tech JV and is wholly owned by Run An;

·                       Beijing Run An Information Consultancy Co., Ltd., or Run An, which is jointly owned by David Weimin Jin and Tao Wang, two executive officers of our company;

·                       Shanghai Wang Cai Advertising Co., Ltd., or Wang Cai AdCo, which is an AdCo Subsidiary jointly owned by AdCo and Tech JV. Wang Cai AdCo and its 11 branch offices hold licenses to conduct advertising businesses;

·                       Shanghai Wang Ju Human Resource Consulting Co., Ltd., or Wang Ju, which is owned by 51net HR and Run An and holds a license to provide human resource related services; and

·                       Wuhan Mei Hao Qian Cheng Advertising Co., Ltd., or Wuhan AdCo, which holds a minority interest in Tech JV and conducts advertising businesses in the city of Wuhan.

Substantially all of our business and operations are conducted through Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries.

In May 2004, we restructured our operations to comply with then existing PRC laws and regulations governing foreign ownership in entities conducting advertising and human resource related services. For a discussion on our group structure, see “Item 4. — Information on the Company — Organizational Structure.”

Our relationships with Qian Cheng and Run An, our affiliated entities, have been governed by a series of agreements. As a result of these agreements, under which we have borne all of the economic risks and received all of the economic rewards in these affiliated entities, the historical financial results of these entities have been consolidated in our financial statements as variable interest entities. For a discussion on the contractual arrangements among our entities, see “Item 7. — Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions — Related Party Transactions — Contractual Arrangements Among Our Group Entities.”

We completed the initial public offering of 6,037,500 American depositary shares, each representing two of our common shares, par value US$0.0001 per share, on October 4, 2004. On September 29, 2004, the trading of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol “JOBS,” commenced.

In August 2007, we entered into an agreement with Recruit to form a new company to provide coupon advertising services in China.

Our principal executive offices are located at Building 3, No. 1387, Zhang Dong Road, Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China. Our telephone number at this address is +(86-21) 6160-1888. Our registered office in the Cayman Islands is located at the offices of Maples Corporate Services Limited, PO Box 309, Ugland House, Grand Cayman, KY1-1104, Cayman Islands. Our agent for service of process in the United States is National Registered Agents, Inc., located at 875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 501, New York, New York 10001.

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Our principal capital expenditures in 2009 totaled RMB28.7 million and consisted primarily of payments toward the purchase of office space, technology systems, network equipment and furnishings for the establishment of a new call center as well as computers, software and office equipment. Our principal capital expenditures in 2010 were RMB23.3 million and consisted of purchases of computers, network equipment, software and other intellectual property rights. In 2010, we completed the purchase of nine floors of an office building in Wuhan Optical Valley Software Park in the city of Wuhan, China for RMB23.5 million, of which RMB21.4 million was paid in 2009. Our principal capital expenditures in 2011 were RMB58.9 million (US$9.4 million) which included RMB42.1 million (US$6.7 million) in installment payments toward the acquisition of a new building in Wuhan and the purchase of computers, office equipment and furnishings.

Capital expenditures in 2011 were funded through operating cash flows and our existing capital resources, and we expect to continue to fund our capital expenditures through these means. Our capital expenditure plans for 2012 have not yet been fixed, but we intend to make installment payments toward the acquisition of a new office building as well as purchase office furnishings, computers, technology-related equipment and software. We have entered into a letter of intent to acquire a new office building in Wuhan to house our growing sales and customer service team for an estimated total purchase price range of RMB70 million (US$11.1 million) to RMB73 million (US$11.6 million).

B.     Business Overview

We believe that we are a leading nationwide provider of integrated human resource services in China. With a strong focus on recruitment advertising, we closely integrate our online and print operations which enable us to attract a broad base of corporate advertisers, reach a wide and diverse audience of job seekers and aggregate job information from multiple channels and geographies. Based on data available at Alexa.com, www.51job.com had the highest traffic ranking among recruitment websites in China for the three months ended March 31, 2012. We operated print publications across 11 major cities in China as of the date of this annual report.

In addition to recruitment advertising services, we also provide other complementary human resource related services, consisting primarily of business process outsourcing, training, campus recruitment and executive search services. We aim to be a comprehensive, “one-stop” solution to human resource departments by providing recruitment and other human resource related services to employers through 25 local sales offices and a national sales and customer service call center in Wuhan.

Although we provide services to both employers and job seekers, we derive substantially all of our revenues from employers. We receive a majority of our revenues in the form of fees from employers for placing job advertisements on www.51job.com and 51job Weekly. We also receive fees from employers for accessing our www.51job.com resumé database, using our eHire product and engaging our other human resource related services.

Our Product and Services

We provide a range of human resource services in the following categories:

·                       recruitment advertising services, including online recruitment services and print advertising; and

·                       other human resource related services, such as business process outsourcing, training, campus recruitment and executive search services.

We generate a significant majority of our revenues from our recruitment advertising services. Our online recruitment services business generated 40.8% of our revenues in 2009, 49.8% of our revenues in 2010 and 58.6% of our revenues in 2011. Our print advertising business generated 34.2% of our revenues in 2009, 25.5% of our revenues in 2010 and 15.2% of our revenues in 2011. Other human resource related services generated 25.0% of our revenues in 2009, 24.7% of our revenues in 2010 and 26.2% of our revenues in 2011.

Recruitment Advertising Services

Online Recruitment Services — www.51job.com. We established our online recruitment website, www.51job.com, in 1999. Online recruitment advertisements appear in both Chinese and English on www.51job.com. These advertisements cover many different job categories ranging from professional and middle management positions to clerical, industrial and hourly jobs. Job seekers may search for positions using keywords or based on a number of criteria, including city of employment, industry, job function, job title and job posting date. We regularly maintain and update our www.51job.com with job search, training and general career management content.

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We believe that www.51job.com is one of the largest dedicated national recruitment websites in China in terms of the number of recruitment advertisements. We also believe that www.51job.com is among the largest in terms of the number of registered job user accounts and posted job seeker resumés, with approximately 56.4 million user accounts established since the launch of our website in 1999 and approximately 47.0 million resumés posted online as of March 31, 2012. We believe that www.51job.com is perceived as a “destination site” by job seekers because of its large volume of advertisements and the job search, training, and general career management and advisory content available on the website.

We believe that www.51job.com provides employers with a cost-effective means of reaching their target audience. As our website contains nationwide recruitment advertisements, employers can access a large pool of potential candidates from a wide geographic area. Certain employers post advertisements solely online when they consider the demographics of their target audience to favor the use of the Internet for recruitment advertising. As a result, www.51job.com includes a higher number of technology related positions than 51job Weekly as well as recruitment advertisements targeted at younger job seekers that are more likely to use the Internet. We generally update the advertisements on our website several times each hour, which allows employers to receive responses more rapidly than is generally possible using print advertisements. Employers also use our website as a marketing tool, placing advertising banners, trademarks, logos, website hyperlinks and other forms of advertising to promote their corporate image for a fee that varies depending on the size, graphics, placement and duration. We believe that certain employers view this image promotion as a significant means of attracting online job seekers to their recruitment advertisements on our website. As a result, we believe that our ability to offer these promotional formats is an important element in our ability to attract online recruitment advertising business, which generates a material portion of our revenues. However, in the event of any adverse change in the actual or perceived effectiveness of online image promotion, or online advertising in general, our online recruitment advertising business may be adversely affected. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business — If the Internet, and online advertising in particular, does not achieve broad acceptance in China as a medium for recruitment, our online recruitment services business may be adversely affected.”

Employers can use our eHire web-based platform to search our job candidate database and download resumés for a fee. In addition, eHire contains other tools that enable employers to manage, organize and streamline the recruitment and hiring process. We also offer website design as an additional value-added service and marketing tool for corporate customers. We can build customized “private label” recruitment websites with the “look and feel” of a dedicated website. We design these sites in-house to client specifications and operate these sites for our clients. These client sites, together with our www.51job.com website, are hosted by China Telecom and China Unicom.

The following table sets forth the estimated number of unique employers who used our online recruitment services for the periods indicated.

www.51job.com provides job seekers with online tools to search for job opportunities and allows them to:

·                       search and review all current recruitment advertisements;

·                       receive e-mails of advertisements matching the job seeker’s profile and preferences;

·                       submit resumés directly to prospective employers to apply for a desired position;

·                       organize and track job related information and applications;

·                       obtain information about upcoming job fairs, career development advice and other job related information; and

·                       track information and receive updates on specific companies of their choice.

We provide job seekers access to www.51job.com free of charge.

We closely coordinate 51job Weekly with our www.51job.com online recruitment website, and we post a significant majority of the recruitment advertisements appearing in 51job Weekly on www.51job.com as well. We place a basic description of a 51job Weekly recruitment advertisement on our website as a complimentary service to our customers. This practice also allows us to introduce our online recruitment website to customers who have only purchased print recruitment advertising to increase potential cross-selling opportunities.

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Print Advertising — 51job Weekly. 51job Weekly is a city-specific recruitment advertising publication which is published once a week and is distributed as an insert in local newspapers and/or on a stand-alone basis. As of the date of this annual report, 51job Weekly was published in 11 cities across China.

The cities where 51job Weekly is published and our newspaper contractor in each city as of the date of this annual report are as follows:

(1)              English translations of the Chinese names.

A different version of 51job Weekly is published in each city, with each version containing city-specific recruitment advertisements. We closely coordinate 51job Weekly with our www.51job.com online recruitment website and post a significant majority of the recruitment advertisements appearing in 51job Weekly on www.51job.com as well. 51job Weekly contains recruitment advertisements for the full range of job categories that are available on our website, including sections for professional, middle management and technical personnel. Advertisements placed in 51job Weekly are primarily in Chinese language.

Employers use 51job Weekly both as a recruitment tool and as an advertising and publicity medium to promote their brand name and raise their corporate awareness among job seekers. 51job Weekly recruitment advertisements come in a variety of formats, from large, multi-color advertisements using graphics and corporate trademarks to simple text job announcements. 51job Weekly is divided into a number of separate sections, with certain sections targeted at higher income and more educated job seekers containing large, colorful advertisements on glossy, high quality paper. Other sections include simpler text-only advertisements targeted at middle and lower income job seekers. The circulation, page dimensions, type of paper used and number of sections appearing in local editions of 51job Weekly differ from city to city.

In China, entities engaged in publishing activities are required by the government to have a publishing license. Since we do not have any publishing licenses, we have established an exclusive relationship with a single local newspaper in each market where 51job Weekly is produced. We rely on these newspapers to provide us with printing and publishing services on a contractual basis, generally for a term of two years or less. These newspapers also generally provide us with distribution support in our local markets. 51job Weekly is distributed as an insert in our contractor’s newspaper in an effort to increase our circulation and help us establish our brand name. As an insert in these newspapers, 51job Weekly is sold at newsstands, kiosks, convenience stores, supermarkets and other venues. We also circulate 51job Weekly independently through our direct marketing campaigns. Our direct marketing includes offering free copies of 51job Weekly at job fairs, in the lobbies of major office buildings, at post offices, on university campuses, outside mass transit stations and in other public areas where the public circulation of newspapers is permitted.

The advertising fees that we charge depend on a variety of factors, including the size, placement, format, and use of color and graphics in the advertisement, the length of time the advertisement is to appear, and the city in which the advertisement is placed. Our print advertising revenues are primarily affected by the number of print advertising pages and the fees that we charge. Pricing for specific products can vary significantly from city to city due to local competition, purchasing power and other conditions.

Our print advertising business, in particular, is characterized by seasonal variations and revenues may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter depending on customer demand and needs. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risk Related to Our Business — Due to seasonal variations in demand for human resource services, we experience material fluctuations in our revenue streams which affect our ability to predict our quarterly results and which may also cause quarterly results to vary from period to period.”

The following table sets forth the estimated number of print advertising pages we generated and the cities where 51job Weekly was published for the periods and as of the dates indicated. In March 2012, we discontinued the publication of 51job Weekly in Beijing, Changsha and Wuhan.

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(1)              For the years ended December 31, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

(2)              As of December 31, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

In 2008 and 2009, our print advertising business experienced a significant decrease in page volumes and revenues due primarily to the impact of the global economic and financial crisis as well as a slowdown in economic growth in China on market demand. In addition, in recent years, we believe the growing acceptance of online recruitment services by employers as well as the progressing shift of recruitment advertising expenditures from print to online media has limited the future use and market outlook of print advertising services for recruitment purposes. As a result, we have discontinued the publication of 51job Weekly in many cities since 2010. We expect to further reduce the number of cities where 51job Weekly is published as we assess market conditions and customer behavior in each city on an ongoing basis. We expect that revenue contribution from our print advertising business will decrease over time.

Other Human Resource Related Services

Business Process Outsourcing. We perform business process outsourcing services by managing human resource administrative functions for employers on an outsourced basis. Our services to corporate clients mainly consist of social insurance and welfare payment processing, regulatory compliance with local governmental employment regulations and payroll processing. While the market for business process outsourcing services in China is currently limited compared to developed economies like the United States, we believe that there is significant future potential for these services as more companies in China become accustomed to using third parties to perform human resource administrative functions. We continue to build our outsourcing capability and aim to increase the number and type of services we provide.

Training. We conduct training seminars in business management, leadership, sales and marketing, human resource, negotiation skills, financial planning and analysis, public administration, manufacturing, secretarial and other skills. We provide our seminars to the general public and on a customized, in-house basis for corporate clients. We license content and materials from third parties for some of the training courses we provide. We also enter into arrangements with certain trainers and lecturers that meet our knowledge, expertise and experience requirements. In addition to classroom-style seminars, we provide outdoor-based training exercises and programs for corporate clients to promote personal development, team building and communication. We believe that our training services build our brand awareness as a provider of comprehensive, integrated human resource services.

Campus Recruitment. We provide campus recruitment services to corporations seeking to recruit college and university students. We assist corporations with recruitment strategy, selection of schools, schedule of campus visits, promotion of their image to students and logistical arrangements.

Executive Search. We provide our eSearch executive search services to employers seeking to fill mid-level professional, managerial and junior executive positions. We generally charge corporate clients a total assignment fee of up to 30% of the candidate’s annual compensation, including in some cases a minimum upfront retainer. We maintain a team of specialized executive search consultants who can access our extensive candidate resumé database that other search firms are restricted from using.

Salary and Other Human Resource Related Surveys. We conduct general and customized salary survey studies with analyses of compensation and benefits packages across various cities, industries and job positions. Human resource departments utilize this data to understand the market for compensation levels and to assist in their determination of compensation and benefits packages. We also conduct surveys on employee retention and other human resource related topics.

Human Resource Conferences. We organize and host annual human resource conferences and events in some of our cities. These conferences and events include lectures, seminars, workshops and networking opportunities for human resource professionals. Although we do not generate significant revenues from hosting these conferences and events, this service provides us with exposure to, and interaction with, existing and prospective clients.

Other Products. We provide assessment tools to assist human resource departments in evaluating capabilities and dispositions of job candidates and existing employees, in aiding employee placement and in allocating employee resources. We also perform hiring and support services to employers on select recruitment projects.

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Technology

We design and update our website and develop our proprietary software entirely in-house. Our website is hosted by China Telecom and China Unicom, China’s principal telecommunications and Internet service providers. We own the copyrights, software, trademarks and other intellectual property with respect to the design and content of our website, other than the advertisements and trademarks provided by our advertisers.

We employ a large staff of website designers and technicians to update and enhance our website as well as to design, build and provide assistance to customers whose recruitment websites we are maintaining. We update the advertisements on our website from our principal executive offices in Shanghai and our customer service center in Wuhan. New recruitment advertisements provided to us by employers who have purchased and registered online accounts generally appear on our website within a few hours. Complimentary online postings for advertisements in 51job Weekly generally appear on www.51job.com for approximately two weeks.

From time to time we experience slower Internet service from our Internet service providers as a result of technical difficulties associated with high traffic volumes, computer viruses, the proliferation of “spam” e-mail traffic and other difficulties that generally affect Internet traffic. To date, we have not been subject to significant targeted disruptions or “hacking” and we believe that difficulties we have experienced relating to the speed of the Internet service and web-hosting provided by China Telecom and China Unicom are consistent with the difficulties that affect Internet service in China generally. To date, our website has not gone off-line or been shut down for any significant period of time. We do not believe that our business has been materially disrupted or negatively affected by technical difficulties with respect to our website. However, we cannot assure you that our business will not face material disruptions or damage from spam, viruses, hacking or other technical difficulties. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business — Computer viruses and “hacking” may cause delays or interruptions on our systems and may reduce use of our services and damage our reputation and brand names;” “— We face risks related to health epidemics and other natural disasters;” and “— We are dependent on our Internet service providers, and we are vulnerable to failures of the Internet, fixed line telecommunications networks in China and our technology platform.”

Competition

We face significant competition in all of our business lines. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business — Because we face significant competition in all of our businesses, we may lose market share and our results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.”

Online Recruitment Services

We experience intense competition in our online recruitment services businesses from dedicated online recruitment websites and websites affiliated with local job fair operators. We are not aware of any other online competitor that also operates a significant print advertising business. We view our principal existing online competitors to be ChinaHR.com, Cjol.com and Zhaopin.com, which are primarily dedicated online recruitment websites.

None of the well-established nationwide Internet portals, including NetEase.com, QQ.com, Sina.com and Sohu.com, are dedicated providers of recruitment advertising or other human resource products, and each offers a wide variety of other online services. However, any or all of our online or print competitors may decide to allocate significant additional resources to providing recruitment advertising or other human resource services. For example, ChinaHR.com, which is wholly owned by Monster Worldwide, and Zhaopin.com, which is majority owned by Australian online recruitment services provider SEEK Limited, have been purported in public reports to have significantly increased expenditures on sales and marketing activities in China from time to time. In the future, we may also face competition from professional and social networking websites as well as other large Internet companies who may enter the market for any or all of our services in China. For example, Baidu, Inc., a leading Chinese language Internet search provider, introduced an online recruitment website called Baijob in January 2011. As a result of these events, we could encounter significantly increased competition in some or all of our markets.

Print Advertising

51job Weekly was published in 11 cities across China as of the date of this annual report. We face competition within all of our markets. Our competitors typically consist of one or more large local newspapers that include a help-wanted section. Our competitors include Guangzhou Daily, Shanghai Talent Market and Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

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Other Services

We believe the market for business process outsourcing services is in an early stage of development and the competition is generally localized. Our key competitors are typically service agencies affiliated with or sponsored by local government and human resources and social security bureaus. In the training services market, we face competition primarily from small, local training firms or individual trainers who specialize in specific areas of expertise. The competition in the executive search services market in China is largely fragmented.

Customers

Our customers consist of large multinational corporations, large national Chinese corporations and local Chinese enterprises of all sizes.

Sales and Marketing

Our sales and marketing strategy is focused on promoting our brand names and further establishing our reputation as an integrated provider of high quality human resource services. We utilize various marketing channels to target three key groups:

·                       job seekers;

·                       employers with hiring and/or training needs; and

·                       human resource departments with actual or potential outsourcing needs.

Direct Marketing. We target employers principally through direct marketing, which we believe has been highly effective in attracting new customers. As of December 31, 2011, we employed over 2,200 sales and account management representatives that identify and directly contact potential customers via telephone, personal sales visits, the Internet and the mail. We maintain 25 local sales offices and have also established a national sales and customer service call center in Wuhan, which became operational in February 2010. We train our sales staff to cross-sell all of our services and to design comprehensive packages of human resource services for potential clients to meet their specific requirements. In addition, we believe that the personal nature of direct marketing has enabled us to better understand the needs of our existing and prospective customers and helped us to develop new services and products.

Event Marketing. We organize customer events, such as recruiting workshops, product information seminars, industry roundtables and networking events, to provide our sales team an opportunity to personally interact with employers and understand their recruitment needs. To attract potential job seekers and build brand awareness, we offer complimentary copies of 51job Weekly at job fairs, at office buildings, and in other public and commercial areas. We believe that offering complimentary copies of 51job Weekly to job seekers is also a highly effective means to cross-promote our www.51job.com website.

Online and Mobile Marketing. We utilize advertising, such as banner advertisements, keyword and hyperlink purchases and paid listings, to promote our brand names on the Internet and mobile marketplaces. We also conduct and sponsor online promotion campaigns such as drawings, giveaways and contests to attract traffic and enhance the loyalty of job seekers to our website. In addition, we have developed mobile applications which can be downloaded by users for free.

Mass Media Advertising. We use traditional mass media advertising on a selective basis to increase our brand visibility and corporate image. We advertise through various media, including outdoor advertising on digital displays, billboards, bus stops and buses. In addition, we advertise on print media such as newspapers, magazines, industry publications and telephone directories.

Cross-Marketing. We cross-market our brand names, services and products on www.51job.com and in 51job Weekly. We also establish cross-marketing relationships with a variety of partners. In addition, we believe that we benefit from recommendations and referrals by the large base of job seekers and employers who use www.51job.com and 51job Weekly.

Media Promotions. We produce surveys and analyses on job market trends and developments that are regularly featured and published in magazines, newspapers and on the Internet. We believe this exposure heightens our corporate image among both employers and job seekers and attracts interest and sales inquiries for our services.

Intellectual Property and Proprietary Rights

We regard our copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights as critical to our business. We rely on trademark and copyright law, trade secret protection, non-competition and confidentiality and/or licensing agreements with our executive officers, clients, contractors and others to protect our intellectual property rights. We have registered our www.51job.com Internet domain name as well as a number of similar domain names in an effort to prevent entities from diverting online traffic away from our website.

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We have registered trademarks, including 前程无忧, 前程, 51job.com, 无忧工作网, eHire, 网才 and eSearch, with the Trademark Office of the PRC State Administration for Industry and Commerce, or the SAIC. In January 2010, 前程无忧 was designated a “Well-Known Trademark,” which is the highest recognition for consumer brands granted by the SAIC. In addition, our wholly owned British Virgin Islands subsidiary 51net has registered our trademarks 前程, 51job.com and 前程无忧 with the Patents Registry, Intellectual Property Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. 51net is also the registered owner of our trademarks 前程無憂 and 51job.com with the Intellectual Property Bureau of the Taiwan Ministry of Economy.

All of our trademarks and the www.51job.com domain name are owned or registered in the PRC by 51net and WFOE. Under a trademark license agreement between 51net, as licensor, and Tech JV, as licensee, Tech JV has the right to use certain trademarks in the PRC, with no right of assignment or sublicense. Under a domain name license agreement between 51net, as licensor, and Tech JV, as licensee, Tech JV has the right to use the www.51job.com domain name in connection with the operation of our website. See “Item 7. — Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions — Related Party Transactions — Contractual Arrangements Among Our Group Entities.”

Our intellectual property is subject to theft and other unauthorized use, and our ability to protect our intellectual property from unauthorized use is limited. In addition, we may in the future be subject to claims that we have infringed the intellectual property rights of others. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business — If we are unable to prevent others from using our intellectual property, our business may be materially and adversely affected” and “— We may be exposed to infringement or misappropriation claims by third parties, which, if successful, could cause us to pay significant damage awards.”

Regulation

Advertising agencies, human resource services firms and Internet content providers are subject to substantial regulation by the Chinese government. An “Internet content provider” is a commercial operator providing the delivery of Internet content. This section sets forth a summary of the most significant PRC regulations that affect the businesses and the industries in which we operate.

In addition to laws and regulations that apply generally to advertising agencies, human resource firms and Internet content providers, special limitations apply to foreign ownership of businesses engaged in human resource and Internet content provider services in China.

Limitations on Foreign Ownership of Our Businesses

Advertising

The principal regulation governing foreign ownership of advertising companies in China is the Administrative Regulations Concerning Foreign Invested Advertising Enterprises (2008 Revision). Under this regulation, foreign investors are allowed to own 100% of an advertising agency in China subject to certain qualification requirements. However, for those advertising agencies that provide online advertising service, foreign ownership restrictions on the value-added telecommunications business are still applicable.

Human Resource Services Companies

The principal regulation governing foreign ownership in human resource services companies in China is the Interim Regulations on the Administration of Sino-foreign Equity Joint Venture as Human Resource Agencies (2003), as amended in 2005, jointly promulgated by the PRC Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the PRC Ministry of Commerce and the SAIC. Under this regulation, the percentage of foreign ownership in the equity interest of a human resource services company cannot be less than 25% or more than 49%. In August 2006, the PRC government increased the foreign ownership percentage to up to 70%.

Value-Added Telecommunications Services and Internet Content Providers

In the PRC, entities that coordinate with Internet service providers (such as telecommunications companies) to effect the online placement of content provided by either themselves or third parties are defined as “Internet content providers” and require a special license. Internet content providers are classified as value-added telecommunications businesses.

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The principal regulations governing foreign ownership in Internet content providers in China include:

·                       Administrative Rules for Foreign Investments in Telecommunications Enterprises (2008 Revision); and

·                       Foreign Investment Industry Guidance Catalogue (2011).

Under these regulations, foreign investors, individually or in the aggregate, are prohibited from owning more than 50% of a PRC entity that provides value-added telecommunications services, which include the service of providing Internet content.

In addition, the PRC Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or the MIIT, issued the Notice on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign Investment in the Operation of Value Added Telecommunications Business, or the MIIT Notice, in July 2006. According to the MIIT Notice, value-added telecommunications services license holders (including their shareholders) shall directly own the domain names and registered trademarks used by such value-added telecommunications services license holders in their daily operations and is prohibited from leasing, transferring or selling the license to foreign investors in any form, and from providing any assistance in forms of resources, sites or facilities to foreign investors that conduct value-added telecommunications business illegally in China. The provincial communications administration bureaus in charge of telecommunications services are required to ensure that existing value-added telecommunications services license holders will conduct a self-assessment of their compliance with the MIIT Notice and to submit status reports to the MIIT before November 1, 2006. For those who are not in compliance with the above requirements and fail to rectify the non-compliance within the limited period set by the provincial communications administration bureaus, the bureaus may revoke their operating licenses. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Doing Business in China — PRC laws and regulations governing operators of Internet websites are unclear and the regulation of the telecommunications and Internet industries may become more burdensome, and if we are found to be in violation of PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to sanctions.”

General Regulation of Our Businesses

Advertising

The SAIC is responsible for regulating advertising activities in the PRC. The principal regulations governing advertising (including online advertising) in China include:

·                       Advertising Law (1994);

·                       Administration of Advertising Regulations (1987);

·                       Implementation Rules on Administration of Advertising Regulations (2004); and

·                       Measures for the Administration of Advertising Business Licenses (2005).

All enterprises, except for broadcast stations, television stations, newspapers, magazines, non-corporate entities and other entities specified in laws or administrative regulations, are no longer required to obtain a separate advertising license although they are required to apply for inclusion of “advertising services” in their business licenses.

Human Resource

Human resource services firms in China are mainly regulated by the PRC Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. The principal regulation applicable to human resource services firms is the Regulations on Administration of Human Resource Markets (2001, as amended in 2005), jointly promulgated by the PRC Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the SAIC. Under this regulation, any entity providing human resource services in China must obtain a human resource services license from the local administration of human resources and social security at the provincial level. Each of these administrations may adopt rules, with some degrees of variation among provinces, to regulate human resource services operations conducted within the province.

Value-Added Telecommunications Services and Online Commerce

The delivery of content on our website is subject to PRC laws and regulations applicable to telecommunications and Internet service providers. We are also within the regulatory jurisdiction of various governmental bodies, including the MIIT and the SAIC. The principal regulations applicable to the telecommunications industry and Internet include:

·                       Telecommunications Regulations (2000);

·                       The Administrative Measures for Telecommunications Business Operating Licenses (2009); and

·                       The Internet Information Services Administrative Measures (2000).

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Under these regulations, the delivery of Internet content provision services is classified as a value-added telecommunications business, and a commercial operator of such services must obtain an Internet content provider license from the appropriate telecommunications authorities.

With respect to online commerce, there are no PRC laws that have national applicability to online commerce relating to advertising and human resource services. However, local authorities may impose requirements on online business activities conducted within its jurisdiction, such as registration or filing requirements.

Labor and Social Insurance

Under the PRC Labor Law effective in 1995 and the PRC Labor Contract Law effective in 2008, a written labor contract must be executed between an employer and an employee. Labor-related regulations and rules of the PRC also stipulate the maximum number of working hours per day and per week as well as the minimum wage standards. In addition, an employer is required to establish occupational safety and sanitation systems, implement the national occupational safety and sanitation rules and standards, and provide employees with workplace safety training.

In the PRC, workers dispatched by an employment agency are normally engaged in temporary, auxiliary or substitute work. Under the PRC Labor Contract Law, an employment agency is the employer for workers dispatched by it and shall perform an employer’s obligations toward them. The employment contract between the employment agency and the dispatched workers, and the placement agreement between the employment agency and the company that receives the dispatched workers shall be in writing. Furthermore, the company that accepts the dispatched workers shall bear joint and several liability for any violation of the PRC Labor Contract Law by the employment agencies arising from their contracts with dispatched workers. An employer is obligated to sign an indefinite term labor contract with an employee if the employer continues to employ the employee after two consecutive fixed-term labor contracts. The employer also has to pay compensation to the employee if the employer terminates an indefinite term labor contract. Except where the employer proposes to renew a labor contract by maintaining or raising the conditions of the labor contract and the employee is not agreeable to the renewal, an employer is required to compensate the employee when a definite term labor contract expires. Furthermore, under the Regulations on Paid Annual Leave for Employees issued in December 2007 and effective as of January 2008, an employee who has served an employer for more than one year and less than ten years is entitled to a 5-day paid vacation, those whose service period ranges from 10 to 20 years is entitled to a 10-day paid vacation, and those who has served for more than 20 years is entitled to a 15-day paid vacation. An employee who does not use such vacation time at the request of the employer shall be compensated at three times their normal salaries for each waived vacation day.

Under the Regulations on Work-related Injury Insurance effective in 2004 and the Interim Measures Concerning the Maternity Insurance for Enterprise Employees effective in 1995, PRC companies must pay work-related injury insurance premiums and maternity insurance premiums for their employees. On December 20, 2010, the State Council promulgated the amended Regulation on Work-related Injury Insurance that became effective on January 1, 2011. The amendments to this regulation expand the scope of work-related injury to include the injury of employees caused by traffic accidents en route to or from the office not primarily attributable to the employees. Employees are entitled to certain treatments under work-related injury insurance that are calculated based on the circumstances of the work-related injury. Under the Interim Regulations on the Collection and Payment of Social Insurance Premiums effective in 1999 and the Interim Measures concerning the Administration of the Registration of Social Insurance effective in 1999, basic pension insurance, medical insurance and unemployment insurance are collectively referred to as social insurance. Both PRC companies and their employees are required to contribute to the social insurance plans. Under the Regulations on the Administration of Housing Fund effective in 1999, as amended in 2002, PRC companies must register with applicable housing fund management centers and establish a special housing fund account in an entrusted bank. Both PRC companies and their employees are required to contribute to the housing funds. On October 28, 2010, the National People’s Congress of China promulgated the PRC Social Insurance Law, which became effective on July 1, 2011. The PRC Social Insurance Law specifies that the PRC establishes a social insurance system including basic pension insurance, basic medical insurance, work-related injury insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance. An employer shall pay the social insurance for its employees in accordance with the rates provided under relevant regulations and shall withhold the social insurance that should be assumed by the employees. The authorities in charge of social insurance may request an employer’s compliance and impose sanctions if such employer fails to pay and withhold social insurance in a timely manner.

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Regulations Relating to Intellectual Property Rights

China has adopted comprehensive legislation governing intellectual property rights, including trademarks, patents and copyrights. China has adhered to the main international conventions on intellectual property rights and became a member of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights upon its accession to the WTO in December 2001.

The PRC amended its Copyright Law in 2001 to widen the scope of works that are eligible for copyright protection. The amended Copyright Law extends copyright protection to cover Internet activities and products disseminated over the Internet. Copyrighted software is protected under the Copyright Law and other regulations. In addition, there is a voluntary registration system administered by the China Copyright Protection Center. The Copyright Law was further amended in February 2010.

Registered trademarks are protected under the Trademark Law adopted in 1982 and revised in 2001. Trademarks can be registered with the Trademark Office of the SAIC for renewable ten-year periods. Trademark license agreements are required to be filed with the Trademark Office of the SAIC for the record, and the failure to complete such filings may cause the trademark license agreements to be unenforceable against bona fide third parties.

Domain name disputes are governed by the Measures of China Internet Network Information Center for Resolving Disputes Regarding Domain Names promulgated by the Chinese Internet Network Infrastructure Center, or the CNNIC, on February 14, 2006 and effective on March 17, 2006, under which the CNNIC can authorize domain name dispute resolution institutions to decide disputes.

Regulations Relating to Internet Privacy

The Constitution of the PRC provides that PRC law protects the freedom and privacy of communications of citizens and that infringement of such rights is not permitted. While PRC laws do not prohibit Internet content providers from collecting personal information of their users, the relevant government authorities have enacted legislation on the use of the Internet that recognizes the protection of personal information from unauthorized disclosure. Under the Regulation on Internet Information Service, Internet information service providers are prohibited from producing, copying, publishing or distributing information that is humiliating or slanderous to others or that trespasses the lawful rights and interests of others. Depending on the nature of their violation, Internet content providers that violate this provision may face criminal charges or be sanctioned by security authorities. In addition, they may be ordered to temporarily suspend their service, or their licenses may be revoked. Under the Administration Regulation on the Internet BBS Service, Internet content providers that provide electronic messaging services must keep users’ personal information confidential and must not disclose such personal information to any third party without the consent of the users, unless the law requires such disclosure. The regulations further authorize the relevant telecommunications authorities to order Internet content providers to rectify an unauthorized disclosure. Internet content providers could be subject to legal liability if the unauthorized disclosure causes damages or losses to the users. To comply with these regulations, we provide subscribers to our website with a range of confidentiality options. They may choose to authorize us to disclose their personal information to third parties, or to instruct us to keep this information strictly confidential. Our systems are designed to maintain information received from these subscribers in accordance with their instructions.

However, the PRC government retains the power and authority to order Internet content providers to turn over personal information of Internet users if the users post any prohibited content or engage in illegal activities on the Internet.

Regulations Relating to Foreign Currency Exchange

The principal regulations governing foreign currency exchange in the PRC are the Foreign Exchange Administration Regulations, as amended in August 2008. Under these regulations, the Renminbi is freely convertible for payments of current account items, such as trade and service related foreign exchange transactions and dividend payments, but not for expenses of capital, such as direct investment, loan or investment in securities, outside the PRC unless the prior approval of the SAFE is obtained and prior registration with the SAFE is made.

Under the Foreign Exchange Administration Regulations, foreign-invested enterprises in the PRC may purchase or remit foreign exchange without the approval of the SAFE for trade and service related foreign exchange transactions by providing commercial documents evidencing these transactions. They may also retain foreign exchange (subject to a cap approved by the SAFE) to satisfy foreign exchange liabilities or to pay dividends. However, the relevant PRC government authorities, which have significant administrative discretion in implementing the laws, may restrict or eliminate the ability of foreign-invested enterprises to purchase and retain foreign currencies in the future. In addition, foreign exchange transactions involving direct investment, loan and investment in securities outside the PRC are subject to limitations and require approvals from the SAFE.

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Regulations Relating to Foreign Exchange Registration of Offshore Investment by PRC Residents

Under the SAFE’s Notice on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Administration for PRC Residents to Engage in Financing and Inbound Investment via Overseas Special Purpose Vehicles, or Circular No. 75, issued on October 21, 2005, (i) a PRC resident, including a PRC resident natural person or a PRC company, shall register with the local branch of the SAFE before it establishes or controls an overseas special purpose vehicle, or SPV, for the purpose of overseas equity financing (including convertible debt financing); (ii) when a PRC resident contributes the assets of or its equity interests in a domestic enterprise to an SPV, or engages in overseas financing after contributing assets or equity interests to an SPV, such PRC resident shall register his or her interest in the SPV and the change thereof with the local SAFE branch; and (iii) when the SPV undergoes a material event outside of China, such as a change in share capital, or merger or acquisition, the PRC resident shall, within 30 days of the occurrence of such event, register such change with the local SAFE branch. PRC residents who are shareholders of SPVs established before November 1, 2005 were required to register with the local SAFE branch before March 31, 2006.

Under Circular No. 75, failure to comply with the registration procedures set forth above may result in penalties, including restrictions on a PRC subsidiary’s foreign exchange activities in capital accounts and its ability to distribute dividends to the SPV.

Regulations Relating to Employee Stock Option Plans

On December 25, 2006, the People’s Bank of China promulgated the Measures for the Administration of Individual Foreign Exchange, and on January 5, 2007, the SAFE further promulgated the implementation rules on those measures. Both became effective on February 1, 2007. According to the implementation rules, if individuals in the PRC participate in any employee stock ownership plan or stock option plan of an overseas-listed company, those individuals must apply as a group through the company or a domestic agency to the SAFE or the appropriate local branch for approval for any foreign exchange-related transactions concerning that plan.

On March 28, 2007, the SAFE promulgated the Application Procedure of Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Employee Stock Holding Plan or Stock Option Plan of Overseas-Listed Company, or the Stock Option Rule. Under the Stock Option Rule, PRC citizens who are granted stock options by an overseas publicly listed company are required, through a PRC agent or PRC subsidiary of such overseas publicly listed company, to register with the SAFE and complete certain other procedures.

On February 15, 2012, the SAFE promulgated the Circular on Certain Foreign Exchange Issues Relating to Domestic Individuals’ Participation in Stock Incentive Plan of Overseas Listed Company, or the New Stock Option Rule. Upon the effectiveness of the New Stock Option Rule on February 15, 2012, the Stock Option Rule became void, although the basic requirements and procedures provided under the Stock Option Rule are kept unchanged in the New Stock Option Rule, i.e., the domestic employees participating in stock incentive plan of an overseas listed company shall appoint the PRC subsidiary of the overseas listed company or a domestic qualified agent to make the registration of the stock incentive plan with the SAFE and handle all foreign exchange-related matters of the stock incentive plan through the special bank account approved by the SAFE. The New Stock Option Rule clarifies that the domestic subsidiary of an overseas listed company shall include the limited liability company, partnership and the representative office directly or indirectly established by such overseas listed company in China and the domestic employees shall include the directors, supervisors, the senior management and other employees of the domestic subsidiary, including the foreign employees of the domestic subsidiary who continuously reside in China for no less than one year.

Similar with the Stock Option Rule, the New Stock Option Rule requires that the annual allowance with respect to the purchase of foreign exchange in connection with stock holding or stock option exercises shall be subject to the approval of the SAFE. The New Stock Option Rule further requires that the material amendments of the stock incentive plan shall be filed with the SAFE within three months following the occurrence of the material amendments. The domestic agent shall also make a quarterly update to the SAFE to disclose the information with respect to the stock option exercises, the stock holding and foreign exchange matters. If the domestic employees or the domestic agent fails to comply with the requirements of the New Stock Option Rule, the SAFE may require the remedy and even impose administrative penalties that the SAFE deems appropriate.

In addition, the PRC State Administration of Taxation has issued circulars concerning employee share options. Under these circulars, individuals working in China who exercise share options will be subject to PRC individual income tax. We have obligations to file documents related to employee share options with relevant tax authorities and withhold the individual income taxes of employees who exercise their share options.

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Regulations Relating to Dividend Distribution

The principal regulations governing distribution of dividends paid by wholly foreign owned enterprises and Sino-foreign equity joint ventures include:

·                       Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise Law (1986), as amended;

·                       Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise Law Implementing Rules (1990), as amended;

·                       Sino-foreign Equity Joint Venture Enterprise Law (1979), as amended;

·                       Sino-foreign Equity Joint Venture Enterprise Law Implementing Rules (1983), as amended; and

·                       PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law and its Implementation Rules (2007).

Under these regulations, foreign-invested enterprises in the PRC may pay dividends only out of their accumulated profits, if any, determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, foreign-invested enterprises in the PRC are required to set aside certain amounts out of their accumulated profits each year, if any, to fund certain reserve funds. These reserves are not distributable as cash dividends.

C.                Organizational Structure

The following chart sets forth our ownership structure as of the date of this annual report.

(1)             Includes Shanghai Wang Ju Advertising Co., Ltd., a wholly owned PRC subsidiary of 51net which conducts advertising services. Does not include Wang Jin Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Wang Cai Information Technology Co., Ltd., which are wholly owned PRC subsidiaries of 51net with no current operations.

(2)             Includes the branches of Tech JV as well as Shanghai Qianjin Zhong Cheng Human Resources Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tech JV which conducts human resource services.

(3)             Includes the subsidiaries and branch of AdCo that conduct advertising businesses. Also includes Wang Cai AdCo, which is jointly owned by AdCo and Tech JV, and Shanghai Cheng An Human Resources Co., Ltd., which is 90% owned by AdCo and 10% owned by Run An.

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Our subsidiary, 51net, directly holds 50% of the outstanding shares of Tech JV, Qian Cheng directly holds 1% of the outstanding shares of Tech JV, and Wuhan AdCo directly holds the remaining 49% of the outstanding shares of Tech JV. As a result of Qian Cheng’s ownership of Wuhan AdCo, each 51net and Qian Cheng is deemed to effectively hold 50% of the equity interest in Tech JV.

Qian Cheng is wholly owned by Run An. Run An is jointly owned by David Weimin Jin and Tao Wang, two executive officers of our company.

Our services are currently provided through the following group entities:

·                       online recruitment and value-added telecommunications services are provided by Tech JV, which holds licenses to provide human resource related and information services via the Internet and mobile networks;

·                       print advertising services are provided by AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries, which are all direct and indirect majority owned PRC subsidiaries of Tech JV; and

·                       human resource related services are provided by Tech JV and Wang Ju, which hold licenses to provide human resource related services.

Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries recognize substantially all of our revenues and receive substantially all of the cash payments from our clients. Our relationships with Qian Cheng and Run An, our affiliated entities, have been governed by a series of agreements, under which we have borne all of the economic risks and received all of the economic rewards in these affiliated entities. As a result, the historical financial results of these entities have been consolidated in our financial statements as variable interest entities under ASC 810 “Consolidation,” or ASC 810.

We have been advised by Jun He Law Offices, our PRC legal counsel, that:

·                       our current ownership structure is in compliance with existing PRC laws and regulations;

·                       the agreements among our subsidiaries, affiliated entities and their respective shareholders are valid and binding, and are enforceable under, and will not result in any violation of, existing PRC laws or regulations, with exception to the effectiveness of the pledges under the equity pledge agreements, which have not yet been registered with the relevant administration of industry and commerce, and the trademark license agreement, which may not be enforceable against bona fide third parties until registration with the relevant trademark administration authorities; and

·                       except as otherwise disclosed herein, our current business operations as described in this annual report are not in violation of existing PRC laws, rules and regulations in all material aspects.

There are, however, substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of PRC laws and regulations, including but not limited to the laws and regulations governing our business or the enforcement and performance of our contractual arrangements in the event of the imposition of statutory liens, death, bankruptcy and criminal proceedings. Accordingly, we cannot assure you that PRC regulatory authorities will not take a view contrary to that of our PRC legal counsel. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure — The PRC laws and regulations governing our business operations and contractual arrangements are uncertain, and if we are found to be in violation, we could be subject to sanctions” and “— Risks Related to Doing Business in China — The PRC legal system has inherent uncertainties that could materially and adversely affect us.”

We have been advised by our PRC counsel that the foreign ownership percentage of Tech JV, AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries prior to our restructuring in May 2004 was above the maximum foreign ownership permitted for entities conducting advertising and human resource operations at that time. For a description of the risks associated with our past ownership structure, please see “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure — If the PRC authorities determine that our past ownership structure was inconsistent with the requirements for operating certain of our businesses, we could be subject to sanctions.”

We intend to continue to evaluate from time to time the PRC regulatory environment with respect to the foreign ownership of, and foreign participation in, human resource related services and Internet content provider services, and plan to continue to streamline our ownership structure and operations as and when permitted by PRC laws and regulations.

Description of the Material Group Entities

51net

51net is an intermediate-level holding company that is the registered owner of some of our trademarks and our domain name, and holds direct and indirect equity interests in several of our PRC subsidiaries. Our wholly owned

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subsidiary 51net is an international business company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Specifically, 51net owns the trademarks 前程无忧, 前程, 51job.com and无忧工作网 under certain categories specified by relevant PRC trademark regulations, and the domain name www.51job.com. All of these trademarks have been registered with the Trademark Office of the SAIC and are protected under the PRC Trademark Law adopted in 1982 and revised in 2001. For a description of PRC regulations relating to intellectual property rights, see “Item 4. — Information on the Company — Business Overview — Regulation — Regulations Relating to Intellectual Property Rights.”

Tech JV

We provide online recruitment and value-added telecommunications services through Tech JV which operates our www.51job.com website. Tech JV was initially established as an equity joint venture between 51net and Qian Cheng. Before our restructuring in May 2004, 51net held 99% of the equity interest in Tech JV and Qian Cheng held the remaining 1%. Currently, the equity interest in Tech JV is 50% held by 51net, 1% held by Qian Cheng and 49% held by Wuhan AdCo. Since Wuhan AdCo is wholly owned by Qian Cheng, each 51net and Qian Cheng holds 50% of the effective equity interest in Tech JV. Because 51net is a British Virgin Islands company, Tech JV is deemed a foreign-invested enterprise and its business activities are subject to the PRC regulatory limitations on foreign ownership as discussed in “Item 4. — Information on the Company — Business Overview — Regulation — Limitations on Foreign Ownership of Our Businesses.” Tech JV holds human resource related services and value-added telecommunications services licenses. Tech JV has also obtained a permit to conduct online advertising from the SAIC. The scope of its business license also includes software development, multimedia and network system design and information technology.

Qian Cheng

Qian Cheng is our joint venture partner in Tech JV and holds a 50% effective equity interest in Tech JV. Qian Cheng is an affiliated entity in which we hold no equity interest. Qian Cheng is wholly owned by Run An, which is jointly owned by David Weimin Jin and Tao Wang. Qian Cheng holds a license issued by the Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce to provide print advertising services.

AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries

We provide print advertising services through AdCo and its branch office, AdCo’s three majority owned subsidiaries and Wang Cai AdCo, a jointly owned subsidiary with Tech JV, or collectively, the AdCo Subsidiaries, located in different cities and provinces in China. AdCo is a PRC equity joint venture company. Tech JV and Qian Cheng own 80% and 20%, respectively, of the equity interest in AdCo. AdCo and the AdCo Subsidiaries have obtained permits from the local administrations of industry and commerce in the cities where they operate, which allow them to conduct advertising business, including the designing and production of advertisements and the contracting of domestic advertising projects.

WFOE

We provide advertising related technical and consulting services to Qian Cheng through WFOE, our wholly owned PRC subsidiary. WFOE is registered in the PRC with the relevant regulatory authorities as a wholly foreign owned enterprise. WFOE owns certain of our trademarks and registered copyrights and its principal business is network and software related technical support services.

Wang Ju

We provide human resource related services through Wang Ju. 51net HR and Run An own 70% and 30%, respectively, of the equity interest in Wang Ju. Because 51net HR is a Cayman Islands company, Wang Ju is deemed a foreign-invested enterprise and its business activities are subject to the PRC regulatory limitations on foreign ownership as discussed in “Item 4. — Information on the Company — Business Overview — Regulation — Limitations on Foreign Ownership of Our Businesses.” Wang Ju holds a permit issued by the Shanghai Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, which allows it to provide certain human resource related services.

D.                Property, Plants and Equipment

Our executive offices as well as our principal customer service, marketing and development facilities, comprising approximately 12,600 square meters, are currently located at No. 1387, Zhang Dong Road, Shanghai 201203, People’s Republic of China. We maintain a large sales office in downtown Shanghai comprising approximately 1,615 square meters at 21st Floor, Wen Xin Plaza, 755 Wei Hai Road, Shanghai 200041, People’s Republic of China. In addition, we lease space for our network of sales offices in Beijing, Changchun, Changsha,

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Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Dongguan, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Harbin, Hefei, Jinan, Kunming, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xian and Zhengzhou. As of the date of this annual report, we have leases for office space totaling approximately 26,000 square meters. We believe that we will be able to obtain adequate facilities to accommodate our expansion plans in the near future.

In 2010, we completed the purchase of nine floors of an office building at Optical Valley Software Park, Guanshan Avenue, Block E2, Wuhan 430074, People’s Republic of China, for RMB23.5 million. This office space is approximately 5,940 square meters and houses our national sales and customer service call center which opened in February 2010. The purchase was funded through operating cash flows and existing capital resources.

In November 2011, we entered into a letter of intent to acquire a new office building comprising approximately 13,000 square meters at Optical Valley Software Park in Wuhan to accommodate the expansion of our operations. The total purchase price for the building is expected in the estimated range of RMB70 million (US$11.1 million) to RMB73 million (US$11.6 million) and additional costs will be incurred to prepare it for occupancy in 2013. In 2011, we made installment payments totaling RMB42.1 million (US$6.7 million) toward the purchase of the building. The purchase was funded through operating cash flows and our existing capital resources.

ITEM 4A.                           UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 5.                                    OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations is based upon and should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and their related notes included elsewhere in this annual report on Form 20-F. This discussion may contain forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors” or in other parts of this annual report.

A.                Operating Results

Overview

We believe that we are a leading nationwide provider of integrated human resource services in China. We offer recruitment advertising services which include online recruitment and print advertising services. We also provide other complementary human resource related services, consisting primarily of business process outsourcing, training, campus recruitment and executive search services. We aim to be a “one-stop” solution to human resource departments by providing recruitment and other human resource related services to employers.

We generate a large majority of our revenues from our recruitment advertising services. For the year ended December 31, 2011, our online recruitment services and print advertising businesses generated 58.6% and 15.2% of our revenues, respectively. Other human resource related services generated 26.2% of our revenues in 2011.

Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

The major factors affecting our results of operations and financial condition include:

·                       Growth of the Chinese Economy and Demand for Human Resource Services in China. China’s rapid economic growth over the past decade has served as an important catalyst for the development of the human resource services industry. In addition, China’s entry into the World Trade Organization and the proliferation of new enterprises has led to increased market liberalization and competition. As a result, companies in China are increasingly recognizing the need for improved human resource recruitment processes and management, which has driven the demand for human resource services.

We expect that our financial results will continue to be affected by the overall growth of the Chinese economy and market demand for human resource services, in particular recruitment services. Impacted by the global economic and financial market crisis in 2008 and 2009, the Chinese economy experienced a slowdown in economic activity, and we experienced a significant decline in sales for our print advertising services as well as a lower revenue growth rate for our online recruitment services and other human resource related services. Since the second half of 2009, China’s economic growth rate has returned to higher levels and market demand for our services has increased. However, if there are slowdowns or other adverse developments in China’s economic growth in the future, we may experience material changes in market demand and sales.

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·                       Changes in the Composition of the Chinese Labor Market. As the Chinese economy grows, we believe that China is developing a large skilled and educated labor force. This growing skilled and educated work force is a key segment targeted by employers who use our human resource services as they seek to attract and retain talent to build a competitive advantage. In addition, China’s large labor force is increasingly migrating toward urban centers due to continuing economic development and employer demand. As a result, major metropolitan areas have become the foundation for the growing human resource services industry in China. For this reason, we have established sales offices in 25 cities across China and cover additional geographies through a national sales and customer service call center. We believe these changes in the composition of the Chinese labor market toward a larger, better skilled and urbanized work force will increase the number of job seekers and employers who utilize our human resource services.

·                       Seasonality in the Human Resource Services Market. The human resource services industry is characterized by seasonal fluctuations. Accordingly, these fluctuations, particularly in the seasonal peak recruitment periods following the Chinese New Year holiday in the first quarter and the National Day holiday in October, may cause our results to vary from quarter to quarter. During seasonal peak periods, demand for recruitment advertising and other human resource related services may or may not rise significantly depending on the needs of employers as well as their perceptions of the job market. In addition, the Chinese New Year holiday is based on the lunar calendar, which varies from year to year and affects our first quarter results and their comparability to financial results of the same quarter in prior years. We also have observed seasonal campus recruitment activity by employers in the fourth quarter of each year but a general slowdown in overall recruitment activity at calendar year end.

·                       Increasing Acceptance of New Recruitment Channels and Human Resource Services. Many employers in China have traditionally relied on job fairs and/or referrals to recruit employees. While we have experienced growth in our recruitment advertising businesses, the use of advertising services to recruit employees has a limited history in China. In addition, we believe that the concept and use of business process outsourcing services is relatively new in China. Therefore, our ability to successfully increase employer acceptance and adoption of our services materially affects our results of operations.

·                       Growing Use of the Internet as a Platform for Providing Human Resource Services. Our results of operations from our online recruitment services in particular will depend substantially upon an increase in Internet penetration and use. According to the CNNIC, the number of Internet users in China has increased from approximately 79 million in 2003 to approximately 513 million in 2011, ranking China as the largest market of Internet users in the world. We believe that continued development of the China’s technology infrastructure, more affordable and diversified means of Internet access, and expanding personal computer ownership will connect an increasingly larger group of job seekers and employers across a wider geographical area as well as facilitate the use of a web-based platform for the delivery of human resource services.

Revenues

A significant majority of our revenues come from employers who purchase our recruitment advertising services, which is comprised of our online recruitment and print advertising services. We also provide other complementary human resource related services, consisting primarily of business process outsourcing, training, campus recruitment and executive search services.

The following table sets forth the revenues from our principal lines of business as a percentage of our total revenues for the periods indicated.

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The following table sets forth our revenue growth rates by business line for the periods indicated.

Recruitment Advertising Revenues

We receive recruitment advertising revenues from the fees that employers pay us for our online recruitment services and our print advertising services.

Online Recruitment Services Revenues. We generate our online recruitment services revenues from fees we charge employers for placing recruitment and related advertisements on our www.51job.com website and for access to eHire through which our resumé download services and recruitment management tools are available. In addition, we generate online revenues for website design and hosting services that we provide to corporations that wish to maintain their own dedicated recruitment website within www.51job.com. While we do not charge job seekers for accessing and using www.51job.com, certain enhanced services are available to job seekers for a fee.

We believe that the increase of our online recruitment services revenues has been characterized by a combination of greater acceptance of the Internet as a recruitment medium in China and our effectiveness in increasing the number of employers using our online recruitment services. In addition, we believe that, by offering online advertising in connection with our print advertising service, we are able to generate higher total revenue per employer while attracting new customers seeking the broader coverage offered by the integration of these two channels and the ability to reach a wider audience of job seekers.

We expect the growth of our online recruitment services revenues will be driven by a greater number of unique employers using these services as well as increases in average revenue per unique employer. In April 2011, we implemented a wide range of price increases for the majority of our online recruitment products and services, which contributed to our realization of higher average revenue per unique employer in 2011. In addition, two offsetting trends affect our average revenue per unique employer. Because new customers tend to use basic, lower priced online recruitment services, significant increases in the number of these customers generally result in higher aggregate online recruitment services revenues but lower average revenue per unique employer. In addition, we may choose to offer introductory packages at reduced prices or provide complimentary trials from time to time, which will also lead to a reduction in average revenue per unique employer. However, our ability to retain customers and migrate them over time to higher priced products has historically offset these factors that reduce our average revenue per unique employer. As more customers become increasingly familiar with our online platform and we build customer loyalty, we may be able to sell them a package of multiple online recruitment services or extend the length of their membership period, both of which increase our average revenue per unique employer. Our ability to retain customers and migrate them to higher priced products or multiple purchases may be adversely affected by, among other things, economic growth and policies in China, market demand for online recruitment services, difficulties we may encounter in developing or launching higher priced services and price competition in the online recruitment services market in China.

We define a unique employer as a customer that purchases our online recruitment services during a specified period. Employers who purchase online services multiple times or in multiple quarters throughout the fiscal year are counted as one unique employer for the annual total. We make adjustments for multiple purchases by the same customer within a city to avoid double counting. Each employer is assigned a unique identification number in our management information system. Affiliates and branches of a given employer may, under certain circumstances, be counted as separate unique employers. Our calculation of the number of unique employers is subject to misidentification and other forms of error, including errors in judgment as to appropriate adjustments to be made to the data. We cannot assure you that our methodology, employer identification, calculations and analyses are accurate, or that they yield results that are comparable between periods or give a correct approximation of actual numbers of customers.

We generally require that all advertising fees be paid in advance of posting an advertisement on our website, although we may offer credit terms to select clients on a case-by-case basis.

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Print Advertising Revenues. We generate our print advertising revenues from fees that we charge employers for placing recruitment and related advertisements in local editions of 51job Weekly across our markets in China. We do not receive revenues from the sale of 51job Weekly. The print advertising contracts we enter into with employers are for single or multiple advertisements in one or more markets. In addition, these contracts as well as the time between the signing of a contract and the publishing of an advertisement in 51job Weekly are generally short-term in nature.

Our print advertising revenues are primarily affected by the number of print advertising pages and the fees that we charge. In 2008 and 2009, we experienced a decrease in print advertising pages due to a decline in market demand resulting from the global economic and financial market crisis as well as a slowdown in the Chinese economy. In addition, in recent years, we believe the growing acceptance of online recruitment services by employers has limited the future use of print advertising services for recruitment purposes. As a result, we discontinued our print operations in six cities in 2010 and two cities in 2011 where the outlook of the local print advertising market did not meet our expectations.

The advertising rates that we charge vary and depend on a number of factors including the size, placement, format and use of color and graphics in the advertisement, the length of time the advertisement is to appear and the market in which the advertisement is placed. Our print advertising rates vary considerably between individual markets due to differences in local competition, purchasing power and other conditions. Historically, the print advertising businesses in our individual markets have not been subject to significant or prolonged price competition. While the prices we charge for print advertising in each city have been generally stable, differences in the relative pricing and page volume contribution by city affect our overall average revenue per page.

Since 2008, we have experienced a decline in print advertising revenues. We believe our print advertising revenues have been affected by a number of factors including, but not limited to, economic growth and policies in China, changes in market demand for print advertising services, the size and allocation of employer budgets for print advertising services, and the use of other recruitment channels, such as the Internet. We believe the growing use of the Internet and the progressing shift of recruitment advertising expenditures from print to online media as well as actions we take to further reduce our print operations will decrease the contribution of our print advertising revenues to our overall revenues. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business — Any failure by us to manage the progressing shift in user habits and advertising expenditures from print to online media could materially and adversely affect our overall results of operations.”

We calculate the number of our print advertising pages by physically counting the number of paid advertising pages in each of our editions of 51job Weekly. In calculating the number of paid advertising pages, we make adjustments to take into account differing page sizes and pages with mixed advertising and non-advertising content. This is a manual process that is subject to error, including errors in judgment as to the appropriate adjustments to be made. We cannot assure you that our methodology, page counting, calculations and analyses are accurate, or that they yield results that are comparable between periods or give a correct approximation of the actual revenues we generate per page.

As our customers usually place orders for print advertisements on a week-to-week basis, our print advertising business is subject to weekly fluctuations. We do not recognize advertising revenue until an advertisement has been printed in 51job Weekly. As a result, delays or cancellations by advertisers hamper our ability to predict print advertising revenues for future periods and makes it difficult for us to accurately forecast revenues with any degree of certainty. See “Item 3. — Key Information — Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Business — Our print advertising business is subject to weekly fluctuations which hamper our ability to predict when revenue will ultimately be recognized, if at all.”

We generally require that all advertising fees be paid in advance of posting an advertisement, although we may offer credit terms to select clients on a case-by-case basis.

Other Human Resource Related Revenues

We generate revenues from our other human resource related services principally from fees paid for contracting our business processing outsourcing services, for attending our training seminars, for using our campus recruitment services, for engaging our executive search services, for purchasing our studies and reports on compensation and other human resource topics, for participating in our industry conferences and for utilizing our assessment services. We expect to continue to expand our outsourcing and training businesses and aim to develop additional human resource related services and products for our corporate clients. We believe that these services are an important component of our “one-stop” human resource solutions strategy and enhance our reputation and image as an industry innovator. In addition, we believe our business process outsourcing business may experience less seasonal and cyclical variations in revenues than our recruitment advertising businesses over time.

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Growth of our other human resource related services will be dependent on our ability to successfully develop, introduce and increase adoption of these types of products and services as well as a relaxation of government regulations in China. We believe the increase in our other human resource related revenues has been primarily driven by growing customer acceptance of these products and services, particularly our business process outsourcing and training services, as well as our sales and marketing efforts. We expect that as we continue to expand the scale and scope of these services and meet growing market demand, revenues generated from these services may increase as a percentage of our overall revenues in the future.

Net Revenues and Business Taxes

Our net revenues reflect a PRC business tax of 5% and other related surcharges which are levied on our revenues, after certain deductions, generated from services we provide in China. Due to certain local government financial incentives, a portion of these business taxes that we had previously paid was refunded in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and included as other income in our statement of operations. We cannot assure you if or when we will receive such financial incentives in the future.

Costs

We operate and manage our various businesses as a single segment. In addition, we share operating costs and management resources amongst these businesses. As a result, we do not account for our results of operations on a geographical or other basis, and we are unable to allocate costs among our various businesses.

The following table sets forth our cost of services and total operating expenses as a percentage of our net revenues for the periods indicated.

Our cost of services as a percentage of our net revenues is affected by our ability to achieve economies of scale and operating efficiencies. We believe that as we grow our operations and infrastructure, we can attract new employers and increase cross-selling opportunities with existing customers across multiple markets and services, thereby allowing us to achieve economies of scale as we may be able to realize a higher level of revenues relative to our direct costs. In addition, the expansion of our online recruitment services business requires limited additional fixed costs.

Although we expect to increase spending on sales and marketing activities and product development in order to strengthen our brand and enhance our service offerings, we aim to decrease our cost of services and total operating expenses as a percentage of our net revenues in the longer term through greater economies of scale and improved operating efficiencies. However, our ability to achieve these objectives is subject to significant uncertainties, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to decrease these costs as a percentage of our net revenues.

Cost of Services

Our cost of services primarily consists of employee compensation, printing related expenses and subcontracting expenses. The majority of our employee compensation and other costs of services are largely shared across our various business lines. Printing related expenses include printing, publishing and distribution expenses that we pay to our newspaper contractors. Our printing related expenses are characterized by both fixed and variable components, and these costs have tended not to increase or decrease proportionately to increases or decreases in our print advertising revenues. We pay subcontracting fees to third parties to provide services in connection with our business process outsourcing business. For our online recruitment services business, we have been able to leverage our existing infrastructure to grow our revenues, allowing us to incur limited additional costs relative to the higher revenues we have generated.

We decreased our cost of services as a percentage of net revenues from 2009 to 2011 primarily through greater economies of scale as well as improved efficiency and productivity. In addition, our printing related expenses decreased in 2010 and 2011 due to the termination of print operations in six cities and two cities, respectively.

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Operating Expenses

Our operating expenses include sales and marketing expenses and general and administrative expenses.

The following table sets forth our operating expenses as a percentage of our net revenues for the periods indicated.

Our sales and marketing expenses primarily consist of salaries, commissions and share-based compensation for our sales and marketing staff, advertising and promotion expenses, and expenses for our management and staff related to our daily operations in local markets. The level of sales and marketing expenditures varies in each city annually and is impacted by a number of factors, including competition and our strategic objectives in each market. In addition, the sales and marketing strategies we employ in each city varies depending on our determination of the most effective means to promote our brand and services. From 2009 to 2011, our sales and marketing expenses decreased as a percentage of our net revenues as revenue growth outpaced our increased expenditures on employee compensation, salesforce expansion and marketing activities. We expect to invest further resources to strengthen our market position and brand.

Our general and administrative expenses primarily consist of employee salaries, bonuses and share-based compensation, building depreciation, office rent and property management fees, administrative office expenses and professional services fees. From 2009 to 2011, our general and administrative expenses decreased as a percentage of our net revenues as revenue growth outpaced the increase in employee compensation, rental and office expenses. As we expand our business and improve our operating and management efficiencies, we aim to lower our general and administrative expenses as a percentage of net revenues in the longer term, but due to significant uncertainties, we cannot assure you of our ability to do so.

Income Taxation

We file separate income tax returns because we, our subsidiaries and our affiliated entities are incorporated in different jurisdictions.

Under the current laws of the Cayman Islands, we are not subject to income or capital gain taxes. In addition, upon payments of dividends by us to our shareholders, no Cayman Islands withholding tax will be imposed.