LinkedIn

LinkedIn, is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 22 March 2011, LinkedIn reports more than 100 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Russian and Turkish. Quantcast reports Linkedin has 21.4 million monthly unique U.S. visitors and 47.6 million globally.

LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in January 2011 and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the NYSE symbol "LNKD".

Reception

LinkedIn has received a generally positive reception from critics. Online trade publication TechRepublic claimed that "LinkedIn has become the de facto tool for professional networking. Irish journalist James O'Sullivan commented in the Evening Echo, an award-winning regional newspaper in the Republic of Ireland, where the company has its European headquarters, that "LinkedIn.com, a business-orientated networking site, can be an ideal way for professionals to present an online profile of themselves...Unlike social networking sites, [with] LinkedIn you're outlining all your credentials; presenting the professional rather than the personal you. Considering the sheer vastness of the digital space, the potential for building up a solid base of contacts and fostering new business relationships is boundless.

Restriction of access to some countries

In 2009 Syrian users reported that LinkedIn server stopped accepting connections originating from IP addresses assigned to Syria. As company's Customer Support stated, services provided by them are subject to US export and re-export control laws and regulations and "As such, and as a matter of corporate policy, we do not allow member accounts or access to our site from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, or Syria.

Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria are not available in the list of countries that LinkedIn users can select as one's location. However, as of April 2010, North Korea is still present there.

In February 2011 it was reported that LinkedIn was being blocked in China after calls for a "Jasmine Revolution". It was speculated to have been blocked because it is an easy way for dissidents to access Twitter, which had been blocked previously. After a day of being blocked, LinkedIn access was restored in China.

SNA LinkedIn

The Search, Network, and Analytics team at LinkedIn has a web site that hosts the open source projects built by the group. The most notable one is Project Voldemort,a distributed key-value structured storage system with low-latency similar in purpose to Amazon's Dynamo and Google's BigTable.

Company background

LinkedIn's CEO is Jeff Weiner, 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. Dipchand Nishar is Vice President of Products. LinkedIn is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in Omaha, Chicago, New York and London. It is funded by Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006 Through January 2011, the company had received a total of $103 million of investment.

In 2003, Sequoia Capital led the Series A investment in the company. 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.

In June 2010, LinkedIn announced it would be opening up a European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.

In July 2010, Tiger Global Management LLC purchased a 1% stake in the company for $20 million at a valuation of approximately $2 billion.

In August 2010, LinkedIn announced the acquisition of Mspoke. It is the company's first acquisition for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition aims to help LinkedIn users do more than just find a job, increase users' activity and improve its 1% premium subscription ratio.

In October 2010 Silicon Valley Insider ranked the company No.10 on its Top 100 List of most valuable start ups.As of December 2010, the company was valued at $1.575 billion in private markets.

LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering on January 27, 2011.The IPO occurred on May 19. Shares, initially priced at $45, rose to $122.70 in the first day of trading. The stock closed up 109% in its first day of trading, making it the fifth-largest first day gainer in the post bubble era.