LinkedIn

Type: Public
Traded as: NYSE: LNKD
Founded: Santa Monica, California (2003)
Headquarters: Mountain View, California, U.S.
Area served: Worldwide
Founders: Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant
Key people: Reid Hoffman (Chairman), Jeff Weiner (CEO)
Industry: Internet
Slogan: Relationships Matter
Website: linkedin.com
Written in: Java
Type of site: Social network service
Advertising: Google, AdSense
Registration: Required
Available in: Multilingual
Launched: May 5, 2003

LinkedIn is a professional social network created in 2003 in Mountain View (California). Early 2014, the site boasts more than 300 million members from 170 industries in over 200 countries and territories.

LinkedIn is an online service that allows you to build and aggregate professional network. It is defined as a knowledge network to facilitate dialogue between professionals. For its members, it is also a tool for managing online reputation and personal branding.

Competitive environment

Social networks like Facebook and MySpace are not considered direct competitors but as complementary networks. According to Reid Hoffman: “MySpace is the bar, Facebook is the barbecue in the garden, and LinkedIn is the office.“

After raising $100 million in 2008 on secondary markets OTC (open only to accredited investors), LinkedIn still has many competitors with Plaxo in the United States, Germany Xing, Viadeo in France, Jobssip Spain etc. LinkedIn has made its IPO in May 20118.

In December 2012, LinkedIn is used by more than 200 million professionals worldwide, with more than 150 industries in 200 countries. In Europe, a network of 11 million members (October 2009). The progress is confirmed as the professional social network announced April 18, 2014 have surpassed 300 million users, this exceeds the number of users of Twitter (241 million users worldwide). Its French competitor, Viadeo, has 50 million members in December 2012, of which about 7 million in France and 14 million in China. XING, the German professional network, recorded for its 13 million members in December 2012, including 420,000 premium members.

LinkedIn strategy for Europe

To grow in Europe, LinkedIn is based on a version of its network by country. The Spanish version of the site was launched in August 2008. To counter Viadeo, LinkedIn launched its French release November 25, 2008 And LinkedIn has opened an office in Paris in early 2011, in response to the opening of the Viadeo office in San Francisco.

In January 2009, the site launched its platform in German.

In October 2011 LinkedIn announced the launch of the “Make it Happen” campaign in France. The campaign aims to embed the use of social networking in the lives of local professionals.

International activities, in particular, LinkedIn has established partnerships with:

New York Times, to share articles and receive the items within the scope of activity included in their LinkedIn profile.
BusinessWeek: The log provides information about companies on LinkedIn (including staffing) while an application on the site businessweek.com allows readers to view their contacts in companies mentioned.
CNBC: studies or polls created by members of Linkedin will be transcribed on the CNBC site to allow users to share discussions with professional contacts. For its part, CNBC provides its programs, articles, blogs, financial data or video content on LinkedIn.
APEC (Association Executive Employment) in France: established in March 2008, this partnership allows exporting some LinkedIn Webservices on the site of the association.

Issues and challenges, in particular professional and social networks face many challenges: