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LinkedIn logo

This is a timeline of online work-focused networking service LinkedIn.

Big picture

Time periodKey developments at LinkedIn
2002–2010LinkedIn is founded, introduces premium services for generating revenues, achieves profitability in 2006 (being the first major social network/Web 2.0 enterprise to do so), becomes the most popular site for work-based networking, and acquires its first startups. It reaches 70 million users by June 2010.[1]
2011–2016LinkedIn goes IPO, reaches beyond 100 million users, and expands more aggressively internationally. It reaches 300 million members in 2013, and 400 million in 2016. LinkedIn gets acquired by Microsoft in June 2016.[2]

Full timeline

YearMonth and dateEvent typeDetails
2002December 14CompanyLinkedIn is founded by Reid Hoffman and 4 other friends.[1]
2003May 5CompanyLinkedIn cofounders send invitations, launching LinkedIn.[1]
2004MayCompetitionViadeo – a social networking site for business owners, entrepreneurs and managers – is launched in France.[3]
2004AugustGrowthLinkedIn reaches 1 million users.[1]
2005JulyProductLinkedIn launches LinkedIn for Groups, a premium service aimed at power users like recruiters, analysts and researchers.[4]
2005AugustProductLinkedIn launches a premium service, LinkedIn Business Accounts, which gives businesses access to more powerful search tools.[5]
2006MarchCompanyLinkedIn achieves its first month of profitability.[1]
2007FebruaryTeamDan Nye becomes CEO of LinkedIn, and Reid Hoffman moves from CEO to chairman and president.[1]
2007AprilGrowthLinkedIn reaches 10 million users.[1]
2007MayProductLinkedIn launches "who's been viewing your profile" feature.[6]
2008FebruaryProductLinkedIn launches a mobile version of the site.[7]
2008AprilProductLinkedIn launches the "People You May Know" feature.[8]
2008JuneFundingSequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and other venture capital firms purchase a 5% stake in the company for $53 million, giving the company a post-money valuation of approximately $1 billion.[9]
2008SeptemberProductLinkedIn launches targeted advertising - allowing advertisers to target specific sections of LinkedIn users (InCrowds) based on the information in their profiles.[10]
2008OctoberProductLinkedIn enables an "applications platform" that allows other online services to be embedded within a member's profile page. Among the initial applications are an Amazon Reading List that allows LinkedIn members to display books they are reading, a connection to Tripit, and a Six Apart, WordPress and TypePad application that allows members to display their latest blog postings within their LinkedIn profile.[11]
2009DecemberInternationalizationLinkedIn opens office in India, and says that 50% of its userbase is now international.[12]
2010MarchInternationalizationLinkedIn opens an International Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.[13]
2010JulyFundingLinkedIn receives a $20 million investment from Tiger Global Management LLC at a valuation of approximately $2 billion.[14]
2010August 4AcquisitionsLinkedIn announces its first acquisition, mSpoke, for its "adaptive personalization engine".[15] The acquisition was for $0.6 million.[16][17]
2010September 23AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires ChoiceVendor, a business-to-business review service, for $3.9 million.[18][19]
2011January 26AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires CardMunch, a business card scanning application, for $1.7 million.[20][16] The service would shut down in 2014 and users would be forced to migrate to Evernote.[21]
2011May 19CompanyLinkedIn IPOs and trades its first shares under the NYSE symbol "LNKD", at $45 per share.[1]
2011JulyProductLinkedIn launches a new feature allowing companies to include an "Apply with LinkedIn" button on job listing pages.[22] The new plugin will allow potential employees to apply for positions using their LinkedIn profiles as resumes. All applications will also be saved under a "Saved Jobs" tab.[22]
2011October 5AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires Connected, a social customer relationship management service.[23]
2011October 11AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires IndexTank, a social search service.[24]
2012February 22AcquisitionsLinkedIn announces that it will acquire Rapportive, a Gmail plugin that shows people the social media profiles from whoever they're corresponding with on Gmail.[25]
2012May 3AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires SlideShare for $119 million. SlideShare is a web service that allows people to upload presentations and share them with everyone.[26][27]
2012JuneCompanyLinkedIn falls victim to a hacking attempt that resulted in 6.5 million hashed passwords reportedly leaked - revealing that LinkedIn does not use password salting.[28][29] In 2016, the company reveals that the breach was far greater than originally thought.[30]
2012SeptemberProductLinkedIn starts allowing users to endorse each other's skills.[31]
2012OctoberProductLinkedIn launches the "Influencer" program, allowing selected "thought leaders" (their term) to share original content directly with LinkedIn users.[32]
2013JanuaryCompetitionTalentBin launches. It is a "search engine" for talented people that picks up their digital tracks (on sites like Stack Exchange) to sell to recruiters.[33]
2013July 23ProductLinkedIn announces their Sponsored Updates ad service. Individuals and companies can now pay a fee to have LinkedIn sponsor their content and spread it to their user base. This is a common way for social media sites such as LinkedIn to generate revenue.[34]
2013April 11AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires Pulse, a popular newsreader for the web and mobile, for $90 million.[35]
2013SeptemberLegalA class action lawsuit is filed against LinkedIn, accusing it of automatically sending invitations to contacts in a user's email address book without permission. The court agreed with LinkedIn that permission had in fact been given for invitations to be sent, but not for the two further reminder emails.[36]
2014February 6AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires Bright.com, a job matching website, for $120 million.[37]
2014AprilInternationalizationLinkedIn launches a new Chinese website in the Chinese language.[38]
2014AprilCompanyLinkedIn leases 222 Second Street, a 26-story building under construction in San Francisco's SoMa district, to accommodate up to 2,500 of its employees
2014July 14AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires Newsle, a service that allows users to follow real news about their Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, and public figures.[39]
2014July 22AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires Bizo, a web application that helps advertisers reach businesses and professionals, for $175 million.[40]
2015January 14CompetitionFacebook announces launch of Facebook at Work, which allows businesses to create their own social networks amongst their employees that are built to look and act like Facebook itself.[41]
2015FebruaryLegalLinkedIn settles a class action lawsuit, compensating up to 800,000 people who paid for its premium services who alleged that it falsely assured them it was using strong security measures to protect their personal information.[42]
2015March 16AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires Careerify, a web application that helps businesses hire people using social media.[43]
2015April 2AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires Refresh.io, a web application that provides insights about people in one's networks right before one meets them.[44]
2015April 9AcquisitionsIn its largest acquisition to date ($1.5 billion), LinkedIn announces its acquisition of Lynda.com, an eLearning platform allowing users to learn business, technology, software, and creative skills through videos.[45]
2015May 7ProductLinkedIn adds an analytics tool to its publishing platform. The tool allows authors to better track traffic that their posts receive.[46]
2015August 28AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires Fliptop, a predictive sales and marketing firm that uses data science to help companies close more sales.[47]
2015OctoberProductLinkedIn introduces new mobile app, codenamed "Project Voyager", making the design more intuitive.[48]
2016February 4AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires Connectifier, a web application that helps companies with their recruiting.[49]
2016FebruaryCompanyLinkedIn's shares drop 43.6% within a single day following an earnings report, down to $108.38 per share. LinkedIn loses $10 billion of its market capitalization that day.[50][51]
2016June 13AcquisitionsMicrosoft announces the acquisition of LinkedIn at $26.2 billion ($60 per user).[52][53][54] The acquisition would be completed on December 8, 2016.[55] The transaction would result in the payment of approximately $26.4 billion in cash merger consideration.[56]
2016July 26AcquisitionsLinkedIn acquires PointDrive, a web application that lets salespeople share visual content with prospective clients to help seal the deal.[57]
2016September 12ProductLinkedIn unveils three new products that it will roll out in India: (1) LinkedIn Lite, a smaller version of the mobile website for people with slower internet connections; (2) LinkedIn Placements, an online screening test intended for students to take; and (3) Starter Pack, a marketing package for small and mid-sized businesses.[58][59][60]
2016September 22ProductLinkedIn launches LinkedIn Learning. The new website caters both to employees seeking career advancement as well as employers wishing to train their employees. A large part of the content is from Lynda, which LinkedIn had acquired in April 2015.[61][62][63][64]
2016October 6ProductLinkedIn launches Open Candidates, a feature that allows users to signal to recruiters that they are looking for a job. The feature allows only those recruiters using LinkedIn's premium-tier service to see whether a user is using Open Candidates.[65]
2016November 17InternationalizationLinkedIn begins to be blocked in Russia due to a law in Russia that requires online services to store personal data of Russian citizens on Russian servers. LinkedIn remains accessible in Russia via virtual private networks.[66][67][68] At the time of the block, LinkedIn has 6 million registered users in Russia.[69]
2017January 6InternationalizationThe Russian government requires Google and Apple to remove the LinkedIn app from their Russian app stores.[70]
2017January 19ProductLinkedIn unveils its new desktop website redesign, which will roll out over several weeks. The new design is said to have "a simpler, app-like look" and be similar to the design of Facebook's desktop website.[71][72][73][74]
2017February 15CompetitionIn the United States and Canada, Facebook launches a feature to search for jobs. The feature allows businesses to post job openings through the status update composer, and allows users to apply to those job postings.[75][76][77][78]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ann Byers (15 July 2013). Reid Hoffman and Linkedin. The Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 2003–. ISBN 978-1-4488-9537-3.
  2. ↑ "Can You Conquer LinkedIn For Business?".
  3. ↑ "These are the local social networks in Europe - Ecommerce News". Ecommercenews.eu. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  4. ↑ "LinkedIn Launches Premium Service – InternetNews". Internetnews.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  5. ↑ "LinkedIn Corporation – Linkedin Launches Premium Service For Recruiters And Researchers". Investors.linked.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Guess who's viewed your profile?". Blog.linkedin.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Announcing LinkedIn Mobile (includes an iPhone version)". Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Learn more about "People You May Know"". Blog.linkedin.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ Guynn, Jessica (June 18, 2008). "Professional networking site LinkedIn valued at $1 billion". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 22, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
  10. ↑ "LinkedIn launches advertising network". The Guardian. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  11. ↑ Facebook in a Suit: LinkedIn Launches Applications Platform, Business Week, October 28, 2008
  12. ↑ "LinkedIn Furthers Expansion In India With Local Office And Media Partnerships". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  13. ↑ "LinkedIn establishment of International Headquarters in Dublin welcomed by IDA Ireland" (Press release). IDA Ireland. March 23, 2010. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
  14. ↑ Levy, Ari (July 28, 2010). "Tiger Global Said to Invest in LinkedIn at $2 billion Valuation". Bloomberg. Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on December 29, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  15. ↑ Hardy, Quentin (August 4, 2010). "LinkedIn Hooks Up". Forbes. Archived from the original on August 5, 2010. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
  16. 1 2 "SEC S/1 Filing". SEC. 2011-11-03. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
  17. ↑ Schwartzel, Erich (2010-08-04). "CMU startup mSpoke acquired by LinkedIn". post-gazette. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
  18. ↑ "How Much Did LinkedIn Pay for ChoiceVendor". Quora. 2010-09-23. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
  19. ↑ "LinkedIn acquires ChoiceVendor". BusinessWire. 2010-09-23. Retrieved 2016-11-23 – via businesswire.com.
  20. ↑ "LinkedIn S1 Filing". SEC. 2011-01-26. Retrieved 2012-02-24.
  21. ↑ Ingrid Lunden (May 7, 2014). "LinkedIn Gives Up The Ghost On CardMunch, Inks Deal With Evernote To Migrate Users". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  22. 1 2 Colleen Taylor, GigaOm. "LinkedIn launches job application plugin." July 25, 2009. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
  23. ↑ Geron, Tomio (2011-10-05). "LinkedIn Acquires Social CRM Company Connected". Forbes. Retrieved 2011-10-05.
  24. ↑ "LinkedIn Buys Real-Time, Hosted Search Startup IndexTank". TechCrunch. 2011-10-11. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  25. ↑ "Rapportive Announces Acquisition By LinkedIn, (Basically) Confirms $15M Price". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  26. ↑ "What Is LinkedIn SlideShare? – Business Insider". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  27. ↑ "Gigaom". Https. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  28. ↑ "LinkedIn is 10 Years Old: Here's How it Changed the Way we Work". Thenextweb.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  29. ↑ "LinkedIn Breach Exposes Light Security Even at Data Companies". The New York Times. June 10, 2012. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  30. ↑ "Hacker advertises details of 117 million LinkedIn users on darknet". The Guardian. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  31. ↑ "LinkedIn Introduces Endorsements - Business Insider". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  32. ↑ "The Surprising Brilliance Of The LinkedIn Influencers Program". Linkedin.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  33. ↑ "TalentBin Takes On LinkedIn By Targeting Recruiters". Fastcompany.com. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  34. ↑ "LinkedIn Expands Ad Program With Launch Of Sponsored Updates Program". Techcruch.com. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
  35. ↑ "LinkedIn Acquires Pulse For $90M In Stock And Cash". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  36. ↑ "PacerMonitor Document View – 5:13-cv-04303 – Perkins et al v. LinkedIn Corporation, Docket Item 1" (PDF). Pacermonitor.com. 2013-09-17. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
  37. ↑ "LinkedIn makes its biggest acquisition by paying $120m for job matching service Bright". TNW. 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2014-04-20.
  38. ↑ "LinkedIn Expands in China With Local Website – Bloomberg". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  39. ↑ "LinkedIn Acquires Start-Up Newsle". 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
  40. ↑ Gelles, David (July 22, 2014). "LinkedIn Makes Another Deal, Buying Bizo". DealBook. New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-14.
  41. ↑ "Facebook Unveils Facebook At Work, Lets Businesses Create Their Own Social Networks". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
  42. ↑ "LinkedIn Settles Class-Action Suit Over Weak Password Security". The New York Times. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  43. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (March 16, 2016). "LinkedIn Buys Careerify to Build out its Recruitment Business". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
  44. ↑ Ingrid, Lunden (2015-04-02). "LinkedIn Buys Refresh.io To Add Predictive Insights To Its Products". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
  45. ↑ "LinkedIn just bought online learning company Lynda for $1.5 billion". Business Insider. 2015-04-09. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
  46. ↑ Ingrid Lunden; “"Who's Viewed Your Posts?" LinkedIn Adds Analytics To Its Publishing Platform.” Techcrunch.com, May 7, 2015. May 7, 2015.
  47. ↑ "LinkedIn acquires predictive marketing firm Fliptop to boost its Sales Solutions offering". VentureBeat.
  48. ↑ "LinkedIn shows off Project Voyager, its new flagship mobile app". Venturebeat.com. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  49. ↑ "LinkedIn acquires recruiting startup Connectifier". VentureBeat.
  50. ↑ Luc Cohen (February 8, 2016). "CEOs, venture backers lose big as LinkedIn, Tableau shares tumble". Reuters.
  51. ↑ Rosenfeld, Everett (5 February 2016). "LinkedIn skids 40%, erases $10B in market cap". Cnbc.com. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  52. ↑ "Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn – The Fire Hose". Financial Times. June 13, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  53. ↑ "Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion". Theverge.com. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  54. ↑ "Microsoft to Acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 Billion". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  55. ↑ "LinkedIn + Microsoft: Our Next Play Begins". linkedin.com. December 8, 2016. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  56. ↑ "U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - Linkedin December 8, 2016". US SEC.
  57. ↑ "LinkedIn buys PointDrive to boost its social sales platform with sharing". TechCrunch.
  58. ↑ Ingrid Lunden (September 12, 2016). "LinkedIn courts users in India with LinkedIn Lite, online job placement tests, business tools". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  59. ↑ "For faster mobile browsing, LinkedIn launches 'Lite' version in India". The Economic Times. The Times of India. September 13, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  60. ↑ Tanya Dubey (September 12, 2016). "Jeff Weiner alongside Indian Linkedin team announcesthree new offerings for India". Business Insider. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  61. ↑ Ingrid Lunden (September 22, 2016). "LinkedIn doubles down on education with LinkedIn Learning, updates desktop site". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  62. ↑ Amy X. Wang (September 23, 2016). "By focusing on worker training, LinkedIn is now finally useful". Quartz. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  63. ↑ Darren Allan (September 23, 2016). "LinkedIn's e-learning site will help you do your job better, and pep up your CV". TechRadar. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  64. ↑ Ken Yeung (September 22, 2016). "LinkedIn reveals what it's doing with Lynda.com: LinkedIn Learning". VentureBeat. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  65. ↑ Ingrid Lunden (October 6, 2016). "LinkedIn will now let you discreetly signal when you're looking for a job". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  66. ↑ Ingrid Lunden (November 17, 2016). "LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  67. ↑ Alanna Petroff (November 17, 2016). "LinkedIn banned in Russia". CNNMoney. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  68. ↑ "LinkedIn blocked by Russian authorities". BBC News. November 17, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  69. ↑ Tsvetkova, Maria; Osborn, Andrew (November 17, 2016). "Russia starts blocking LinkedIn website after court ruling". Reuters. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  70. ↑ CECILIA KANG and KATIE BENNER (January 6, 2017). "Russia Requires Apple and Google to Remove LinkedIn From Local App Stores". The New York Times. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  71. ↑ Ingrid Lunden (January 19, 2017). "LinkedIn debuts new desktop version with 'chatbots', new search and more". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  72. ↑ Matt Weinberger (January 19, 2017). "LinkedIn's website is getting a fresh new design — here's your first look". Business Insider. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  73. ↑ Robbie Gonzalez (January 20, 2017). "The New LinkedIn Looks Just Like Facebook. Smart Move". WIRED. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  74. ↑ Kathleen Chaykowski (February 22, 2017). "LinkedIn's Website Gets A Makeover". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  75. ↑ "Take the Work Out of Hiring". Facebook for Business. February 15, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  76. ↑ Bahler, Kristen (February 17, 2017). "How to Use Facebook's New Job Search Feature". Money.com. Money.com. Archived from the original on May 3, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  77. ↑ Jillian Stampher (February 16, 2017). "Facebook takes on LinkedIn with new job postings feature". GeekWire. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  78. ↑ Josh Constine (February 15, 2017). "Facebook's new job opening posts poach business from LinkedIn". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
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