LinkedIn is "In the Black"
As far as we're concerned, a year of profitability is but a "taste" of the success we aspire to achieve at LinkedIn. Nonetheless, our employees, investors, and friends certainly deserve to enjoy such an accomplishment – one to which few dot-com companies can lay claim.
Our normally hard-working yet casual crew cleans up nicely (photos here) so we decided to bring out the good stuff Saturday night during LinkedIn’s "In the Black" gala at San Francisco's Ferry Building.
We started things out properly, greeting guests with a sparkling cava reception as they arrived at the grand hall. Eagerly pursuing the “taste of success” theme, we enjoyed several rounds of wine and cheese -- expertly paired by the folks from Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant and Cowgirl Creamery, respectively – followed by an extraordinary spread of Mediterranean-inspired delicacies artfully presented by Amaryll Schwertner of Boulette's Larder and Matt Dillon of Sitka & Spruce .
And then. . .
. . .out came the chocolate.
Now, one truffle representing every 10,000 LinkedIn members may not sound like a lot of chocolate, but when you're talking about a network of over 10 million people, it turns into a veritable Wonka (or in this case, Recchiuti) experience.
The LinkedIn team and our guests didn't hold back, tearing through the bulk of 1,000 specialty chocolates during the tasting led by Michael and Jacky Recchiuti of Recchiuti Confections. The fleur de sel caramels proved especially popular and a few guests were spotted stuffing their pockets with goodies hastily wrapped in cocktail napkins.
Although the formal celebration wrapped up around 11pm, word has it that the party continued well into the wee hours of the morning as LinkedIners took full advantage of San Francisco’s nightlife.
And deservedly so.
A special thank you to everyone who has contributed to LinkedIn’s success thus far, and we look forward to celebrating many more momentous occasions together in the future!
Dave Sanford -- product analyst, resident foodie, and party planner at LinkedIn, organized last weekend's "In the Black Party" to celebrate our year of profitability.
Peter Michanek May 21, 2007
It is wonderful that LinkedIn is profitable. That profit will provide the resources for further development and growth. You have done a good job and you all deserve a party.
A big reason for the success is the fact that you have been able to attract 10 million users with thousands more joining every day. That is at the same time what worries me.
I believe that in order to become even bigger and better and more profitable you depend on smooth communication with the users. You need to get feedback about what features are missing, reports about bugs that need to be fixed and some advice about what is good or bad about LinkedIn.
That is not easily done when you have 10 million users. I imagine that your customer service gets swamped with questions. If I where to ask a simple top ten question I would probably get a fast and correct response. But it is a far more frustrating task to get a bug report past customer service and to the right manager or developer.
What should I do?
How can you help me help you become even better?
Larry Waters Jun 26, 2007
I'm really glad you're in the black and enjoy using LinkedIn. No doubt the new "premium" features and memberships played a large role in your becoming profitable.
I am not against you making money nor do I oppose the premium business memberships for those who find them a worthwhile investment. You have crossed the line in one area, though.
The "Who Viewed My Profile" feature should NOT be a premium feature. To be told 68 people viewed my profile and here a couple of teasers is insulting. It would be like charging to communicate with people in my network.
I currently don't see the need to upgrade my membership. HOWEVER, if I could see who those 68 people/companies are, that could be a justification TO UPGRADE if I saw valuable connections. Right now, I have no idea if the 68 are of any value and I'm not going to fork over a credit card just to "test the waters".
Allowing unlimited access to free members of "View my Profile" may justify a lot of people upgrading their memberships: think of it as a marketing tool. To those that don't, this is a networking community and ALL MEMBERS should be able to see who is viewing them. If you start taking this "pay for play" plan too far, someone is going to take your concept and run with a competing board...and under-accessed/over-charged members are going to migrate to it. Sell more advertising if you want money...I don't mind looking at banners if it keeps the board user-friendly. I'll even click on them for you; but making the site LESS attractive to use is bad business.
Otherwise, congratulations on your milestone.
Mario Sundar Jun 26, 2007
Hi Peter,
We do monitor bugs through a variety of sources. Feel free to send me any directly to me at msundar@linkedin.com and I'll route it to the right contact.
Steven Stegman Jul 2, 2007
@Larry,
I'm the product manager for WVMP (Who's Viewed My Profile)--thank you for your feedback. WVMP is a beta product and we're still determining what we want to make available. Currently, nonsubscribers see up to 5 results, and subscribers (including personal plus accounts, which are only $60/year) see up to 20.
At LinkedIn, we continue to give the bulk of our value (our core products, search and introductions) away for free to all users, as we always have.
That said, we'll be examining this (and our general revenue model) in the future, so thank you for your input.
Tim Ferris Aug 22, 2007
I just went to upgrade my account, and in no way did I see the value of even the lowest form of membership at $20/month. I have over 500 links on the free system, and my estimate of the situation is that LinkedIn is worth 1/10th to 1/20th of the subscription price they're/you're asking.
I would love to see the benefits match up with the cost. Matching my benefit thus far with what I'd want to pay, it would be about the same as I would for a magazine subscription.