There is no stopping LinkedIn growth. With over 225 million users worldwide, the popular social networking site for professionals has definitely achieved tremendous online success.
Its triumphant story began with the conceptualization of LinkedIn in December 2002. The company founders, Reid Hoffman and some of his buddies from PayPal and SocialNet.com (Allen Blue, Eric Ly, Konstantin Guericke and Jean-Luc Vaillant), were in Hoffman’s living room preparing plans to create a new social networking site; and after 5 months of hard work, LinkedIn was launched on May 5, 2003.
The success of LinkedIn was phenomenal. It captured a huge share in the social networking market and has grown from 4,500 members in its first month to over 225 million in its first decade.
LinkedIn growth success may be attributed to the fact that it targeted professionals rather than teens and young adults. It was the first social networking site that focused on connecting companies and individuals seeking new careers. It concentrated on individuals looking for professional development and on organizations on the lookout for alternative ways of conducting business.
The recession further contributed to the growth of this social media wonder. A lot of people who had lost their jobs were looking for old friends, relatives and business contacts that could help them secure a new career. LinkedIn capitalized on this opportunity by serving as a platform that unites job seekers with friends who can help them connect with employers. The saying “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know,” was the main concept behind LinkedIn’s website. People adopted the website because job seekers gained an insider connection to the companies they wanted to apply for, and organizations were thrilled to save time and money spent on the recruitment process by processing referrals from current employees.
The tremendous success and popularity of LinkedIn encouraged many competitors, such as dribble.com, behance.net, github.com and Google+. But even though many companies entered the market, LinkedIn continued to capture interest, increasing its market share by leaps and bounds.
People choose LinkedIn over other websites offering the same service because of its huge community that provides the ability to connect quickly and easily with potential employers/employee using referrals from friends/current employees.
People also choose LinkedIn because of its ability to promote the product or services they are offering. It also makes the job of corporate recruiters easy because it gives them access to millions of individual records that they can use to fill company vacancies accurately and fast.
LinkedIn has proven itself to be a global success. With over 3,700 personnel around the globe (which includes California, Mountain View, Los Angeles, Chicago, Amsterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Dubai, Mumbai, Milan, Singapore, Paris, Toronto, Tokyo, as well as several others) and more than two hundred million members using it to reach out to individuals and organizations to find their dream jobs, it has definitely changed the way we network. The success of LinkedIn is reflected in the price of the stock (NYSE:LNKD), which has appreciated more than 100% year-to-date.