LinkedIn (pronounced IPAEng: ˈlɪŋktˈɪn) is a business-oriented social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking. As of December 2007, its site traffic was 3.2 million visitors per month, up 485% from the end of 2006. As of May 2008, it had more than 24 million registered users, spanning 150 industries.

Company info

LinkedIn's CEO is Dan Nye. As of February 2007, founder and former CEO Reid Hoffman, previously an executive vice president of PayPal, remains President of Product and Chairman of the Board. LinkedIn is located in Mountain View, California, and funded by Greylock, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006. LinkedIn also has offices in Omaha, Chicago, New York, and London.

On June 17, 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.

On September 6, 2008, Patrick Crane 1, Vice-President of Marketing and Advertising at Linkedin conducted a podcast called Linkedin Unplugged 2 on The Podcast Network Connections Show 3. Patrick talks with Stan Relihan 4 about his role at LinkedIn and answers questions on subjects of interest to users, such as Site Performance & Scalability, Groups and the future direction of Linkedin.

Features

The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

• A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second degree connections) and also the connections of second degree connections (termed third degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone you wish to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
• It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.
• Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
• Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either a preexisting relationship, or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participates in EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.