LinkedIn turns 19!
LinkedIn has become the de facto platform for all business professionals on the planet and today it turns 19! Not many appreciate its scale, roots, the journey it has taken and where it came from.
Today LinkedIn has over 830 million users globally, with 30.8 million of those in the UK. It operates in over 200 countries, and has become the virtual equivalent of you (your digital business suit in many ways), and is used to validate your expertise, your impact, your value, and if you are the right person to help.
One of the surprises to us is how LinkedIn’s use has evolved from recruitment, networking, sales and marketing into other areas like risk assessments, credit checks, and due diligence for investments and company valuations – with many more use cases to unfold going forwards we’re sure.
LinkedIn started out in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman, and the site officially launched on May 5, 2003. Reid has previously been on the board of Google, eBay and PayPal, so had a proven track record before taking the first round of funding and eventually floating on the New York stock exchange. This also goes some way to explaining the great integration between Google and LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is one of the oldest mainstream social platforms, older than YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The mission statement was keyed to connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.
At the end of the first month of full operation, LinkedIn had a total of 4,500 members in the network but on a bad day it would only get 20 sign ups – puts it all into perspective doesn’t it!
5 May 2022
