Google is shutting down its job search site Google Hire a little over two years after the product officially was launched. This was mentioned by the company in a support article on Tuesday, adding that the decision was difficult but will allow them to better focus their resources on other products.
Hire by Google was launched back in 2017 in an effort to make hiring easier for applicants and companies alike. Built into G Suite, it made it possible for other tools such as Docs and Calendar to be used to help book meeting rooms, schedule appointments and share feedback on candidates.
Built mostly for small to medium-sized businesses, its price ranged from $200 to $400 a month depending on how many G Suite licenses users needed.
Hire was based on the technology Google obtained when it bought the startup Bebop in 2015 for $380 million. Bebop’s acquisition was seen as a way for the tech giant to bring co-founder Diane Greene on-board to lead its Cloud division.
In 2018 Google announced that its cloud was bringing in more than $1 billion in revenue per quarter. However, Greene left her post as Google’s cloud chief in early 2019, being succeeded by Oracle veteran Thomas Kurian.
Last month Google said that its cloud business is now generating more than $8 billion in revenue on an annualized basis.
But as of now, Google has decided to move on from the recruiting service Greene helped create a little over 6 months after her departure.
In an FAQ for customers, Google said, “While Hire has been successful, we’re focusing our resources on other products in the Google Cloud portfolio.”
“We are deeply grateful to our customers, as well as the champions and advocates who have joined and supported us along the way.”
Hire’s official shutdown date will be September 1, 2020. Though on the bright side of things, Google says it will no longer charge customers for Hire subscription after their next payment. However, no more functionalities will be added to Hire before the sunset date, still, the service itself will be maintained.
Businesses or users using Hire today will also be able to export their data for free until the service shuts down, or when their contract ends, whichever comes first. Also, existing G Suite subscriptions are not affected.
Hire is the latest Google service to get the chop in recent months as the company has been shutting down a number of its services. Google+ is on the chopping block as well as instant messaging tool Hangouts, which will be shut down on June 2020.