With the goal of helping professionals connect around the world, Linkedin positions itself as a professional community in this competitive market. The platform currently has over 500 million users in over 200 countries and territories, 80% of whom believe that professional networks are important to their career success. Linkedin’s business model is a freemium model that operates as a community that connects professionals around the world. To understand how LinkedIn makes money, it’s important to look at its business model and learn more about the services the company provides.
What is LinkedIn?
Similar to Facebook, you connect with other professionals from different fields on Linkedin by sending them requests. Your profile acts as your resume, and others have access to your professional information, which includes your current and previous jobs, your aspirations, experience, etc. Despite being one of the fastest growing social networks, Linkedin is still unknown to most of the world’s population. With over 106 million monthly active users, this one-of-a-kind professional social networking platform is used by professionals and corporations to build their personal and corporate brand online and connect with millions of other professionals.
What is LinkedIn?
Similar to Facebook, you connect with other professionals from different fields on Linkedin by sending them requests. Your profile acts as your resume, and others have access to your professional information, which includes your current and previous jobs, your aspirations, experience, etc. Despite being one of the fastest growing social networks, Linkedin is still unknown to most of the world’s population. With over 106 million monthly active users, this one-of-a-kind professional social networking platform is used by professionals and corporations to build their personal and corporate brand online and connect with millions of other professionals.
LinkedIn was founded by renowned American internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman with the aim of creating a community of professionals to connect with. The community reached over 1 million users in August 2004 and has been growing at an incredible rate ever since. The mobile version of the site was launched in February 2008, and the company was acquired by Microsoft in February 2016 for $26.2 billion.
The professional community also hosts millions of jobs listed by more than 9 million companies, and even lets you share your thoughts as blogs on LinkedIn Pulse.
LinkedIn Business Model
LinkedIn connects you not only with other professionals, but also with companies and recruiters. The company clearly positions itself as the only platform worthy of professional networking. Along with professionals, it also caters to companies and even charges a fee to provide certain premium services. Unlike other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, users pay to stand out on this platform.
How does LinkedIn make money?
While most social media sites make the bulk of their revenue from advertising, LinkedIn has a completely different business model. LinkedIn's revenue model can be divided into two parts:
Business solutions
LinkedIn is a one-stop solution for expanding your professional network and finding new opportunities. Every LinkedIn user has a different set of requirements. Whether it is finding new networking opportunities, potential employees, marketing for new campaigns, finding a sales lead, or learning business concepts, LinkedIn Business Solutions provides services to meet most of these needs.
Business Solutions is a collective name for premium services offered by a company to its users. It consists of -
Talented solutions
With over 65% contribution to total revenue, Talent Solutions is the most important service and tool included in LinkedIn's business model. Talent Solutions includes recruiting tools for companies and recruiters to help them find the most suitable employees/partners for their business. The main services offered under Talent Solutions are: LinkedIn Recruiter, Jobs, Advertising Materials, and Work with Us
One of the key differences between LinkedIn and other job boards is that users don’t typically join LinkedIn just to look for a job, they join LinkedIn to build and promote their personal brand, which in turn is what recruiters are looking for. Recruiters get a better picture of a person on LinkedIn than on any other job board. LinkedIn Talent Solutions also appears to be a major service that helps recruiters poach employees from competing companies.
Marketing solutions
In addition to being the best recruiting platform, LinkedIn is also a favorite among marketers to run their marketing campaigns. The service accounts for over 18% of the company's total revenue and offers features that allow companies to not only create a company page but also expand their marketing efforts by creating sponsored content, inMails, and text ads.
Premium subscriptions
Premium subscriptions are premium solutions designed for individuals on LinkedIn. It allows users to unlock certain features that are not available to its regular users. Premium plans are designed to meet specific user needs. Subscriptions include features: Career, Business Plus, Sales Navigator, Recruiter Lite.
Career decisions
By upgrading to a premium account, you can improve your visibility, expand your reach, and gain access to candidate information that allows you to compare your profile with others. You can get a clearer picture of who is viewing your profile and gain access to online video courses and salary information.
Job Search Solutions
By upgrading to a premium business account, you get access to unlimited profile searches and suggested profiles - up to 3rd power You can access InMail features that let you connect with anyone on LinkedIn, even those you haven't connected with yet, including the huge number of famous people on the site The premium version has more detailed options for business and careers.
Sales Solutions
Linkedin's premium sales solutions enhance your social sales strategies by providing tools like advanced prospecting, sales insights, InMail, referrals, and saved leads.
Recruitment Solutions
The Talent Solutions subscription offered under the Premium Solutions is a lighter version of the Talent Solution, as described above. With this subscription, you get access to smart suggestions, automated candidate tracking, integrated recruiting and recruiting-focused website design, as well as the usual features like InMail messages, viewing visits to your profile, etc.
Acquisition and partnership
LinkedIn has also expanded its business model through many acquisitions, which include some very well-known names such as:
The professional community also hosts millions of jobs listed by more than 9 million companies, and even lets you share your thoughts as blogs on LinkedIn Pulse.
LinkedIn Business Model
LinkedIn connects you not only with other professionals, but also with companies and recruiters. The company clearly positions itself as the only platform worthy of professional networking. Along with professionals, it also caters to companies and even charges a fee to provide certain premium services. Unlike other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, users pay to stand out on this platform.
How does LinkedIn make money?
While most social media sites make the bulk of their revenue from advertising, LinkedIn has a completely different business model. LinkedIn's revenue model can be divided into two parts:
Business solutions
LinkedIn is a one-stop solution for expanding your professional network and finding new opportunities. Every LinkedIn user has a different set of requirements. Whether it is finding new networking opportunities, potential employees, marketing for new campaigns, finding a sales lead, or learning business concepts, LinkedIn Business Solutions provides services to meet most of these needs.
Business Solutions is a collective name for premium services offered by a company to its users. It consists of -
Talented solutions
With over 65% contribution to total revenue, Talent Solutions is the most important service and tool included in LinkedIn's business model. Talent Solutions includes recruiting tools for companies and recruiters to help them find the most suitable employees/partners for their business. The main services offered under Talent Solutions are: LinkedIn Recruiter, Jobs, Advertising Materials, and Work with Us
One of the key differences between LinkedIn and other job boards is that users don’t typically join LinkedIn just to look for a job, they join LinkedIn to build and promote their personal brand, which in turn is what recruiters are looking for. Recruiters get a better picture of a person on LinkedIn than on any other job board. LinkedIn Talent Solutions also appears to be a major service that helps recruiters poach employees from competing companies.
Marketing solutions
In addition to being the best recruiting platform, LinkedIn is also a favorite among marketers to run their marketing campaigns. The service accounts for over 18% of the company's total revenue and offers features that allow companies to not only create a company page but also expand their marketing efforts by creating sponsored content, inMails, and text ads.
Premium subscriptions
Premium subscriptions are premium solutions designed for individuals on LinkedIn. It allows users to unlock certain features that are not available to its regular users. Premium plans are designed to meet specific user needs. Subscriptions include features: Career, Business Plus, Sales Navigator, Recruiter Lite.
Career decisions
By upgrading to a premium account, you can improve your visibility, expand your reach, and gain access to candidate information that allows you to compare your profile with others. You can get a clearer picture of who is viewing your profile and gain access to online video courses and salary information.
Job Search Solutions
By upgrading to a premium business account, you get access to unlimited profile searches and suggested profiles - up to 3rd power You can access InMail features that let you connect with anyone on LinkedIn, even those you haven't connected with yet, including the huge number of famous people on the site The premium version has more detailed options for business and careers.
Sales Solutions
Linkedin's premium sales solutions enhance your social sales strategies by providing tools like advanced prospecting, sales insights, InMail, referrals, and saved leads.
Recruitment Solutions
The Talent Solutions subscription offered under the Premium Solutions is a lighter version of the Talent Solution, as described above. With this subscription, you get access to smart suggestions, automated candidate tracking, integrated recruiting and recruiting-focused website design, as well as the usual features like InMail messages, viewing visits to your profile, etc.
Acquisition and partnership
LinkedIn has also expanded its business model through many acquisitions, which include some very well-known names such as:
Lynda
Lynda is one of LinkedIn's latest acquisitions. It is an e-learning platform with a subscription-based revenue model that allows users to learn business, software, technology, and creative skills through video.
SlideShare
Slideshare was acquired by LinkedIn in 2013 with the goal of giving its members the ability to discover people through content. LinkedIn Slideshare is a slide hosting service that allows users to upload content privately or publicly in PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote, or OpenDocument format.
The service is provided free of charge to everyone.
What makes LinkedIn's business model different?
LinkedIn's business model has an advantage over other social media platforms because it has clearer motives and a revenue model that is not entirely dependent on advertising. Additionally, time spent on the social network is not considered time spent by users, which, unlike Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat, differentiates it as a legitimate social media platform.
The platform is not as popular as others, but it sees growth potential in the future. Since its acquisition by Microsoft, LinkedIn's business model has been expanding faster than ever.
Lynda is one of LinkedIn's latest acquisitions. It is an e-learning platform with a subscription-based revenue model that allows users to learn business, software, technology, and creative skills through video.
SlideShare
Slideshare was acquired by LinkedIn in 2013 with the goal of giving its members the ability to discover people through content. LinkedIn Slideshare is a slide hosting service that allows users to upload content privately or publicly in PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote, or OpenDocument format.
The service is provided free of charge to everyone.
What makes LinkedIn's business model different?
LinkedIn's business model has an advantage over other social media platforms because it has clearer motives and a revenue model that is not entirely dependent on advertising. Additionally, time spent on the social network is not considered time spent by users, which, unlike Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat, differentiates it as a legitimate social media platform.
The platform is not as popular as others, but it sees growth potential in the future. Since its acquisition by Microsoft, LinkedIn's business model has been expanding faster than ever.