In 1999 one analyst suggested that everybody invest in companies that made bubble wrap. He figured that with the huge growth of e-commerce the companies who would benefit the most were bubble wrap companies. Go figure.
Now, with the current economy there are surely companies who are benefiting, right? Right!
One such company is LinkedIn. Last week they announced a $22.7 million funding round which explains the huge smile on their CEO’s face on the right here.
Dan Nye has even more to smile about. Since the economic crisis hit in September LinkedIn has seen a 25% increase in the rate of sign-ups! All over the world concerned employees are updating their digital resumés and strengthening their ties to headhunters and other useful contacts.
Before September LinkedIn had maintained a growth rate of about one new member every two seconds, or 1 million new users about every 20 days. Not bad at all! Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September the growth rate had increased to 1 million new users every two weeks. Suddenly that $ 22.7 million round makes a lot of sense. They are clearly worth it!
LinkedIn has 30 million users worldwide and of those 30 million about 7 million are based in Europe. In the time you read that last sentence (3 seconds?) LinkedIn added 2 new members. Another member. And another. You get the idea. That was two more…
P.S. why not yoin our group on LinkedIn while you are updating your resumé? Will make you look intelligent and innovative. Really!
Linkedin is an awesome tool. It worked very well for me (new contacts made, job offers and interviews, even VC meetings and pitching projects, good answers to questions I had).
Of course, it takes time to develop a good network but it’s worth it.
They were profitable since some time ago and I guess they’ll stick around for many years ahead.
They are profitable.
they could make a lot more money though if they had more options to pay. The current paid account is useless to me. If they would have asked me for $50 a year to be able to connect with more than 500 people I would have happily done that.
One of these days they’ll have to work out how to make a profit. Or perhaps that should be large amounts of profit. Or is that $22.7 million just designed to pay for the run rate for long enough to get through the recession?