LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented social networking service. The platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, as it allows jobseekers to post their CVs and employers to post their job listings. As of 2024, LinkedIn has more than 1 billion registered members from over 200 countries and territories.
It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly, receiving financing from numerous venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital, in the years following its inception. Users can invite other people to become connections on the platform, regardless of whether the invitees are already members of LinkedIn. LinkedIn can also be used to organize offline events, create and join groups, write articles, and post photos and videos.
Company overview
Founded in Mountain View, California, LinkedIn is currently headquartered in Mountain View, with 36 global offices as of February 2024. In February 2024, the company had around 18,500 employees.
LinkedIn’s current CEO is Ryan Roslansky. Jeff Weiner, previously CEO of LinkedIn, is now serving as the Executive Chairman. Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, is chairman of the board. It was funded by Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and the European Founders Fund.
LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006. Since January 2011, the company had received a total of $103 million of investment. LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in January 2011 and traded its first shares in May, under the NYSE symbol “LNKD”.]
History
The company was founded in December 2002 by Reid Hoffman and the founding team members from PayPal and Socialnet.com (Allen Blue, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Lee Hower, Konstantin Guericke, Stephen Beitzel, David Eves, Ian McNish, Yan Pujante, Chris Saccheri). In late 2003, Sequoia Capital led the Series A investment in the company. In August 2004, LinkedIn reached 1 million users. In March 2006, LinkedIn achieved its first month of profitability. In April 2007, LinkedIn reached 10 million users. In February 2008, LinkedIn launched a mobile version of the site.
Acquisitions
| Number | Acquisition date | Company | Business | Country | Price | Description | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | August 4, 2010 | mspoke | Adaptive personalization of content |  USA | $0.6 million[63] | LinkedIn Recommendations | [64] |
| 2 | September 23, 2010 | ChoiceVendor | Social B2B Reviews | USA | $3.9 million[65] | Rate and review B2B service providers | [66] |
| 3 | January 26, 2011 | CardMunch | Social Contacts | USA | $1.7 million[63] | Scan and import business cards | [67] |
| 4 | October 5, 2011 | Connected | Social CRM | USA | – | LinkedIn Connected | [68] |
| 5 | October 11, 2011 | IndexTank | Social search | USA | – | LinkedIn Search | [69] |
| 6 | February 22, 2012 | Rapportive | Social Contacts | USA | $15 million[70] | – | [71] |
| 7 | 2012 | ESAYA Inc. | Social Content | USA | – | TrueSwitch – Migrate Your Email, Contacts & Calendar data Between Provider’s Account | [72] |
| 8 | May 3, 2012 | SlideShare | Social Content | USA | $119 million | Give LinkedIn members a way to discover people through content | [73] |
| 9 | April 11, 2013 | Pulse | Web / Mobile newsreader | USA | $90 million | Definitive professional publishing platform | [74] |
| 10 | February 6, 2014 | Bright.com | Job Matching | USA | $120 million | [75] | |
| 11 | July 14, 2014 | Newsle | Web application | USA | – | Allows users to follow real news about their Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, and public figures. | [76] |
| 11 | July 22, 2014 | Bizo | Web application | USA | $175 million | Helps advertisers reach businesses and professionals | [77] |
| 12 | March 16, 2015 | Careerify | Web application |  Canada | – | Helps businesses hire people using social media | [78] |
| 13 | April 2, 2015 | Refresh.io | Web application | USA | – | Surfaces insights about people in your networks right before you meet them | [79] |
| 14 | April 9, 2015 | Lynda.com | eLearning | USA | $1.5 billion | Lets users learn business, technology, software, and creative skills through videos | [80] |
| 15 | August 28, 2015 | Fliptop | Predictive Sales and Marketing Firm | USA | – | Using data science to help companies close more sales | [81] |
| 16 | February 4, 2016 | Connectifier | Web application | USA | – | Helps companies with their recruiting | [82] |
| 17 | July 26, 2016 | PointDrive | Web application | USA | – | Lets salespeople share visual content with prospective clients to help seal the deal | [83] |
| 18 | September 16, 2018 | Glint Inc. | Web application | USA | – | Employee engagement platform. | [84] |
| 19 | May 28, 2019 | Drawbridge | Marketing Solutions | USA |
Perkins lawsuit
In 2013, a class action lawsuit entitled Perkins vs. LinkedIn Corp was filed against the company, accusing it of automatically sending invitations to contacts in a member’s email address book without permission. The court agreed with that permission had in fact been given for invitations to be sent, but not for the two further reminder emails.
settled the lawsuit in 2015 for $13 million (≈$16.3 million in 2023).Many members should have received a notice in their email with the subject line “Legal Notice of Settlement of Class Action”. The Case No. is 13-CV-04303-LHK.
Membership
In 2015, LinkedIn had more than 400 million members in over 200 countries and territories, which was significantly more than competitor Viadeo (50 million as of 2013). In 2011, its membership grew by approximately two new members every second.
In 2020, membership grew to over 690 million LinkedIn members. As of September 2021, LinkedIn had over 774 million registered members from over 200 countries and territories. In November 2023, it reached a member count of one billion.
Personal branding
LinkedIn is particularly well-suited for personal branding, which entails actively managing one’s image and unique value to position oneself for career opportunities. It has evolved from being a mere platform for job searchers into a social network that allows users to create a personal brand. A personal brand can be described as the emotional experience you want people to have as a result of interacting with you, and a LinkedIn profile is an aspect of that. Alternatively, a personal brand can be seen as a public-facing persona exhibited on LinkedIn, Twitter, and other networks, showcasing expertise and fostering new connections.
See also
- Business network
- Employment website
- List of social networking services
- Reputation systems
- Social network
- Social software
- Timeline of social media
