The network, true to its name, was a startup founded by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantine Guericke, Eric Ly and Jean-Luc Vaillant in the summer of 2003. Their mission statement was to bring professionals on a single platform for social interaction. However, over the years it has evolved its network globally with more than 3700 employees and available in 19 languages currently.
Co-founder Hoffman frankly opines that to start off with they never looked to set a business model well until 2005. Their goals have been realistic always.
Here are some ground breaking moments in their decade long stint.
1. Within two years of its founding, LinkedIn Jobs was the first source of revenue generation, followed by subscription services and on-site advertising. These premium services generate 57% or $184.3 million for the company.
2. This monetization model owes a lot to LinkedIn's association with what came to be known as the "PayPal Mafia". The core founding team and initial investors including Hoffman were former employees at PayPal. The likes of Peter Theil, PayPal's co-founder and Keith Rabois, V.P of PayPal were some of LinkedIn's first investors.
1. Within two years of its founding, LinkedIn Jobs was the first source of revenue generation, followed by subscription services and on-site advertising. These premium services generate 57% or $184.3 million for the company.
2. This monetization model owes a lot to LinkedIn's association with what came to be known as the "PayPal Mafia". The core founding team and initial investors including Hoffman were former employees at PayPal. The likes of Peter Theil, PayPal's co-founder and Keith Rabois, V.P of PayPal were some of LinkedIn's first investors.
3. Coming to the company's going social, it took a good 8 years for this to materialize. As reports show, LinkedIn traded its first share as the first social networking site in 2011 at a price of $45, with a 84% rise at of the day.
4. Most people take LinkedIn's success as a perfect business model. Its versatility lies in the evolution of the site from a mere resume-building, job searching through mentor backed recommendations to a more holistic contact building network. To back this, the company has signed major partnership deals and acquisitions like CardMunch (business card converter to phone contacts), Connected (for LinkedIn contacts), SlideShare and Pulse. Each of these acquistions has enhanced the business outlook of the site many times.
4. Most people take LinkedIn's success as a perfect business model. Its versatility lies in the evolution of the site from a mere resume-building, job searching through mentor backed recommendations to a more holistic contact building network. To back this, the company has signed major partnership deals and acquisitions like CardMunch (business card converter to phone contacts), Connected (for LinkedIn contacts), SlideShare and Pulse. Each of these acquistions has enhanced the business outlook of the site many times.
5. In 2011, LinkedIn was chosen to host the Presidential discussion at Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley. It was a time when the U.S economy was in the throes of recession and unemployment. LinkedIn's role as subtly ackowledged as a power plug of job creation in this meet.
6. Following this success, its credentials as a professional network skyrocketed. Within 3 years, the membership hopped from a 100 million to 200 million.
7. While the highs have been many, the worst black mark in its history besides Dan Nye's resignation, was the 6.5 million accounts password compromise.These are just a handful of memorable moments that define LinkedIn's success graph. In a interview, founder Allen Blue was asked about the network's future goals and visualizations. "He believes that soon there will be a world where people are doing what they love, not just what they have to. Where professionals understand that the work they do is one of the most significant ways in which they can contribute to their communities and the world."
In a shortspan decade, LinkedIn has set a versatile networking paradigm dedicated to business professionals, companies as well as start ups holistically.
The E-junkie team wishes LinkedIn many more years of glorious success!
Images via TNW
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