Shares of Chinese online job-seeking website Zhaopin., com rose sharply above the IPO price of $13.50 in their debut in New York on Thursday.
Zhaopin Ltd. was trading at $15.67 near midday, up 16%. The stock opened at $14.51, a penny above the upper end of the IPO price range the company had set earlier in its process of going public.
The company said its IPO of 5.6 million shares was valued at $75.7 million, without assuming the underwriters would exercise their overallotment option.
Zhaopin's performance is seen as a barometer of investor appetite for China's technology sector in advance of the much anticipated float later this year of shares of online shopping and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Alibaba's IPO could raise $20 billion, which would make it one of the largest IPOs in U.S. history.
"A lot of talent view an IPO, particularly in the U.S., as a landmark for a Chinese company, that you've become a more professional company."
The company said it plans to use the proceeds from the sale of American depository shares—which allow foreign-based companies to trade on U.S. exchanges—to spur growth, expand into new markets, improve its website and acquire other companies. The IPO was underwritten by Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS AG 's investment bank.
Zhaopin has an unusual way of deciding whether to enter new markets: It looks for coffee shops. If a small Chinese city has a Starbucks, Pacific Coffee or a similar coffee seller, Mr. Guo said, the city likely has a significant number of job seekers looking for office positions, Zhaopin's target market.
"Coffee culture is an indication that people are becoming white collar," Mr. Guo said.
Among the hot industries in China these days include finance, software and engineers, the company said. Zhaopin, which means "recruit" in Chinese, sells annual memberships to some 250,000 companies that advertise for employees on Zhaopin's website.
Most annual memberships cost between 3,000 and 5,000 yuan, or between $482 and $803, Mr. Guo said. Job seekers aren't charged.
The Beijing company is majority owned by Seek International, Australia's largest online job site.
For the nine-month period ended March 31, Zhaopin posted a profit of 130.1 million yuan, up 10% from a year earlier. Its net revenue for the period was 739.7 million yuan, up 18%.
The company said it had 74 million registered users in 2013, citing iResearch Public Data, an Internet research firm, and is the second-largest online recruitment site in China by revenue after 51Job.com.
Rapid growth in the online job-search industry is driven by Chinese economic expansion, the migration of millions of Chinese from rural areas to cities and the shift in China's economic focus from exports and investment to services, high tech and consumer-led industries, the company said.
Also benefiting online recruitment is a tighter labor market that has pushed up wages and left more employers eager to find well-qualified employees.
Analysts estimate there are some 140 million people seeking professional jobs in China.
