LinkedIn

LinkedIn :

LinkedIn /ˌlɪŋkt.ˈɪn/ is a business-oriented social networking service. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. In 2006, LinkedIn increased to 20 million members. As of March 2015, LinkedIn reports more than 364 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories.

The site is available in 24 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Czech, Polish, Korean, Indonesian, Malay, and Tagalog. As of 2 July 2013, Quantcast reports LinkedIn has 65.6 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 178.4 million globally, a number that as of 29 October 2013 has increased to 184 million. In June 2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique visitors, up 63 percent from a year earlier and surpassing MySpace. LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in January 2011 and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the NYSE symbol "LNKD".

LinkedIn's CEO is Jeff Weiner,[10] previously a Yahoo! Inc. executive. The company was founded by Reid Hoffman and 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, and Chris Saccheri).

Founder Reid Hoffman, previously CEO of LinkedIn, is now Chairman of the Board.[10][17] LinkedIn is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in Omaha, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Milan, Munich, Madrid,Stockholm, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Australia,Canada, India and Dubai.

LinkedIn has more than 7,600 full-time employees with offices in 30 cities around the world. LinkedIn started off 2012 with about 2,100 full-time employees worldwide, up from around 1,000 at the beginning of 2011 and about 500 at the beginning of 2010.

It is funded by Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures,[18] Bessemer Venture Partners and the European Founders Fund.[19] LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006.[20] Through January 2011, the company had received a total of $103 million of investment.[21]

In late 2003, Sequoia Capital led the Series A investment in the company.[22] In June 2008, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and other venture capital firms purchased a 5% stake in the company for $53 million, giving the company a post-money valuation of approximately $1 billion.[23]

In 2010, LinkedIn opened an International Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland,[24] received a $20 million investment from Tiger Global Management LLC at a valuation of approximately $2 billion,[25] and announced its first acquisition, Mspoke,[26] and improved its 1% premium subscription ratio.[27] In October of that year Silicon Valley Insider ranked the company No. 10 on its Top 100 List of most valuable start ups.[28] By December, the company was valued at $1.575 billion in private markets.[29]

2011: IPO[edit]
LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in January 2011 and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the NYSE symbol "LNKD", price of IPO was $45 per share. Shares of LinkedIn, which rose as much as 171 percent in their first day of trade on the New York Stock Exchange, closed at $94.25, more than 109 percent above IPO price. Shortly after the IPO, the site's underlying infrastructure was revised to allow accelerated revision-release cycles.[10]

In 2011, LinkedIn earned $154.6 million in advertising revenue alone, surpassing Twitter, which earned $139.5 million.[30] LinkedIn’s fourth-quarter 2011 earnings soared due to the company's increase in success in the social media world.[31]

In the spring 2012, LinkedIn leased 57,120 square feet on three floors of the One Montgomery Tower building in the Financial District of San Francisco, expanded to 135,000 square feet by 2014.[32][33] In May 2012, LinkedIn announced its 2012 Q1 revenues were up 101% to $188.5 million compared to $93.9 million in Q1 2011, with net income increasing 140% over Q1 2011 to $5 million. Revenue for Q2 was estimated to be between $210 to $215 million.[34]

In November 2012, LinkedIn released their third quarter earnings, reporting earnings-per-share of $0.22 on revenue of $252 million. As a result of these numbers, LinkedIn's stock increased in value, trading at roughly $112 a share.[35]

In April 2014 it was announced that LinkedIn had leased 222 Second Street, a 26-story building under construction in San Francisco's SoMa district, to accommodate up to 2,500 of its employees.[