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LinkedIn | An Authentic online service for business and employment

LinkedIn History

LinkedIn is an American online service for employment. It can be operated via both website and Application. It was founded in 2002 by Ryan Roslansky and launched in May 2003. Furthermore, it is mainly used for career development and professional networking. Likewise, it allows jobseekers to post their CVs and employers to post the job. In 2021 LinkedIn has more than 774 million people registered, from 200 countries. It allows the user to make their profile and connect to people professionally. It also allows writing articles, posting images and videos.

In 2003, the first investment was done by Sequoia Capital. It purchased 5% of the company’s stake for $53 million.

In 2004, it reached 1 Million users.
In 2006, the first month of profitability was achieved.
In 2007, it reached 10 Million users.
In 2008, the mobile version of LinkedIn was launched.
In 2009, Its office was opened in Mumbai than in Sydney.
In 2010, It opened its International Headquarters in Dublin and Ireland. In private markets, the company was valued at $1.5 billion.
In 2011, it earned $154.6 million in advertising. Surpassed Twitter which earned $139.5 million. The earnings raised because the company was growing on social media.
In 2013, a lawsuit was filed against LinkedIn named Perkins vs LinkedIn Corp. It was charged for sending invitations to the people added in the email address book without their permission. The court agreed with the company and said that permission had been given to sent invitations.
In 2016, the company lease a 26-floor building in San Francisco in the SoMata district to accommodate its 2500 employees. The main goal was to join all the San Francisco’s employees in one place.
In February its shares were dropped 14.6 in one day which was down to $108.38 per share. It lost 10 million of its market capitalisation.
Microsoft acquire its $26.2 billion total shares, which was the largest takeover of Microsoft.
In 2017, it was used by 94% of B2B (Business to Business) marketers to distribute content.In January LinkedIn’s desktop version was launched. Features that are not used frequently was removed.

The company sent a Cease-And-Desist letter of violations of CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) and DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) to HiQ labs which were about scraping data from the LinkedIn server. HiQ sued on LinkedIn in the court of San Francisco asking the court to prohibit LinkedIn from blocking its accessing public profiles. The court passed an initial order against LinkedIn and allow HiQ to collect public data.

In 2019, LinkedIn launched an Open for Browser feature which allows the user to find freelancers.

In 2020, Jeff Weiner became the Chief Executive of LinkedIn. LinkedIn had approximately 20500 employees. It laid 960 employees which were about 6% of the total workplace. The CEO mentioned that these cuts are the effects of the global pandemic COVID-19.

In 2021, 500 LinkedIn accounts get leaked. In June 700 LinkedIn records were on sale on a hacker platform. In October, in China Microsoft ended the LinkedIn operations.

LinkedIn’s headquarters are currently in Sunnyvale, California and has 33 global offices in Chicago, New York City, Omaha, Washington, D. C, Los Angeles, London, Dublin, Graz, Milan, São Paulo, Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Munich, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Tokyo, Melbourne, Toronto, Sydney, Bangalore, Mumbai, Gurgaon, New Delhi, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.

How does LinkedIn work?

LinkedIn App

LinkedIn allows the user to create profiles. Two types of users can work on LinkedIn employers and jobseekers. The profile contains the CV (Curriculum Vitae) which consist of their work experience, training, education, skills and a profile picture of themselves. Employers can post jobs as per their needs. The users can save the jobs they want to apply to they can also apply directly. They can also follow different people and companies. People can get interact to each other by choosing like or congratulate them on their birthdays, anniversaries as well as with direct messages.

Users can also make groups (open or private) where they can discuss topics, take meetings. Private groups are only accessible to the members, only they will be able to share or read messages.

By connecting with people it’ll help the user to know more people, easy to find your interest. The user can also go to the other people connections.

LinkedIn has become the premier digital platform for professionals. It is the biggest platform for Jobseekers and employers. According to the research “In Australia, more than 12 million people working professionals out of which 10 million are on LinkedIn. According to worldwide 122 million got job interviews and 35 million got hired via LinkedIn”.

LinkedIn launched a feature button called “Apply with LinkedIn” on job listing pages, which send your LinkedIn profile as resume. LinkedIn helps small business to connect with customers. When a user connects one another that is called “first degree connection”, when they connect to people of one another that is called “second degree connection” and when people connect with the second degree connection that is called “third degree connection”. These connections help the user’s profile more likely to appear in searches.

In 2008, LinkedIn launched a feature called “LinkedIn DirectAds”. We have to pay to get appear in more searches. It added an analytical tool that allows the user to track traffic on their posts.