Table of Contents
- Summary
- Introduction
- LinkedIn’s business today
- LinkedIn in the competitive environment
- Moving LinkedIn forward: recent initiatives
- Where LinkedIn should go next
- Conclusion
- About David Card
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Summary
A month after its debut as a public company, professional social network LinkedIn isn’t resting on its laurels. The company has made several moves recently, including testing a new social ad format, hiring a journalism pro to help with its content initiatives and adding syndication features to its jobs platform.
Meanwhile, many are watching LinkedIn as an early indicator of the performance of upcoming IPOs from other companies with social DNA, like Zynga, Groupon and eventually Facebook. What will LinkedIn do next?
In this research note we examine the company’s current business and how that might evolve, and we assess its role in the larger social media marketplace. We also examine its most recent initiatives and how those might fit into a larger post-IPO strategy that could take LinkedIn’s advertising and licensing businesses well beyond recruiting.
Companies mentioned in this research note include LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Zynga, Groupon, Monster Worldwide, CareerBuilder, AOL, MSN, Microsoft, American Express, Cathay Pacific, Citrix, StumbleUpon, Salesforce.com, Yammer, Socialtext, Skype, Research in Motion, IBM, Oracle and SAP.