4 ms·

LinkedIn Posts $243M In 2010 Revenue, $15.4 Million In Net Income

28 points by joshbert 16y ago

JacobIrwin 16y ago
My startup founder and I were recently discussing their sources of revenue. LinkedIn goes a little lighter on ads and offsets by charging for three tier levels of membership. For example, if you want to send X "InMails" you have to be at X level of membership. This model is debilitating. I watched my classmate the other day 1.) Find the person he was trying to contact through LinkedIn 2.) Try to send them an InMail 3.) Only to find out he had to upgrade to a paid membership to do so 4.) Copy/Paste the person's name (from LinkedIn) into Google's search engine with the word "email" added to the end 5.) Found their email address in the first result (via a campus directory) 6.) Proceeded to Yahoo Mail to reach out to them. This may not work with names like Rick Smith, but that six step process only took him 20-30 seconds. Would you pay $30+ to upgrade your LinkedIn account for InMail or would you rather spend 30 seconds to Google them?
- vaksel 16y ago
  $30 is nothing...and you gotta remember that most people aren't tech savvy
- goombastic 16y ago
  I used to be a paid member, but never really managed to figure out the insane restrictions and the slow closing down of network visibility. It's not as if being a paying member gives you anything other than the stupid "inmail" system. Not worth it. If all social platforms were rated on goodwill, linkedin would come in last.
- il 16y ago
  The entire calculus changes when you're a bizdev guy spending someone else's money.
  - Alex3917 16y ago
    Or even a salesperson spending their own money. If you're selling software for 75k a pop, do you really care about spending 400 bucks a year if it's going to increase your close rate?
- maukdaddy 16y ago
  I hate LinkedIn's business model and would change in a heartbeat if there was a decent alternative. I feel like LinkedIn is the MySpace of professional social networking. Now that professionals are comfortable with the concept, it's only a matter of time until a competitor comes along and steals their business.
  - code_duck 16y ago
    MySpace, heck... it feels more like Classmates.com or Friendster to me.
  - salemh 16y ago
    They are pretty terrible with spam profiles (getting better), spam groups, etc. The slow decline of MySpace is relevant (though, not nearly as intense or quick).
- Concours 16y ago
  You really have to remember that, most people, far more than a tech savvy person could imagine aren't tech savvy, they won't open google , add a name + email to find a person they are trying to get in touch with, I think they will either leave it or pay the $30...most of the time. An alternative could be twitter or facebook, but that's another story trying.
citizenkeys 16y ago
The fact that we're having this discussion means LinkedIn is doing something right. LinkedIn is under-valued because they are still the only social network for business professionals. LinkedIn continues to make improvements to their service. I know a lot of professionals, myself included, that use LinkedIn regularly and don't use Facebook much at all. Incidentally, everybody is welcome to add me to your LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/citizenkeys http://www.linkedin.com/in/citizenkeys
ninjastar99 16y ago
243 minus 15 = 227. Ummmm... what did LinkedIn spend $227 million dollars on?
- chegra 16y ago
  Cost of revenue 44,826 Sales and marketing 58,978 Product development 65,104 General and administrative 35,064 Depreciation and amortization 19,551 Total costs and expenses 223,523 http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000119312511064249/ds1a.htm http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/0001193125110...
revorad 16y ago
It's funny how when a company actually makes profit, TC writes a short facts-only news story with no commentary or excitement. If it were a story of LinkedIn getting another round of funding, they would be gushing over how it was going to take over the world.

28 points by joshbert 16y ago

My startup founder and I were recently discussing their sources of revenue. LinkedIn goes a little lighter on ads and offsets by charging for three tier levels of membership. For example, if you want to send X "InMails" you have to be at X level of membership. This model is debilitating. I watched my classmate the other day 1.) Find the person he was trying to contact through LinkedIn 2.) Try to send them an InMail 3.) Only to find out he had to upgrade to a paid membership to do so 4.) Copy/Paste the person's name (from LinkedIn) into Google's search engine with the word "email" added to the end 5.) Found their email address in the first result (via a campus directory) 6.) Proceeded to Yahoo Mail to reach out to them. This may not work with names like Rick Smith, but that six step process only took him 20-30 seconds. Would you pay $30+ to upgrade your LinkedIn account for InMail or would you rather spend 30 seconds to Google them?

vaksel 16y ago
$30 is nothing...and you gotta remember that most people aren't tech savvy
goombastic 16y ago
I used to be a paid member, but never really managed to figure out the insane restrictions and the slow closing down of network visibility. It's not as if being a paying member gives you anything other than the stupid "inmail" system. Not worth it. If all social platforms were rated on goodwill, linkedin would come in last.
il 16y ago
The entire calculus changes when you're a bizdev guy spending someone else's money.
- Alex3917 16y ago
  Or even a salesperson spending their own money. If you're selling software for 75k a pop, do you really care about spending 400 bucks a year if it's going to increase your close rate?
maukdaddy 16y ago
I hate LinkedIn's business model and would change in a heartbeat if there was a decent alternative. I feel like LinkedIn is the MySpace of professional social networking. Now that professionals are comfortable with the concept, it's only a matter of time until a competitor comes along and steals their business.
- code_duck 16y ago
  MySpace, heck... it feels more like Classmates.com or Friendster to me.
- salemh 16y ago
  They are pretty terrible with spam profiles (getting better), spam groups, etc. The slow decline of MySpace is relevant (though, not nearly as intense or quick).
Concours 16y ago
You really have to remember that, most people, far more than a tech savvy person could imagine aren't tech savvy, they won't open google , add a name + email to find a person they are trying to get in touch with, I think they will either leave it or pay the $30...most of the time. An alternative could be twitter or facebook, but that's another story trying.

citizenkeys 16y ago

The fact that we're having this discussion means LinkedIn is doing something right. LinkedIn is under-valued because they are still the only social network for business professionals. LinkedIn continues to make improvements to their service. I know a lot of professionals, myself included, that use LinkedIn regularly and don't use Facebook much at all. Incidentally, everybody is welcome to add me to your LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/citizenkeys http://www.linkedin.com/in/citizenkeys

ninjastar99 16y ago

243 minus 15 = 227. Ummmm... what did LinkedIn spend $227 million dollars on?

chegra 16y ago
Cost of revenue 44,826 Sales and marketing 58,978 Product development 65,104 General and administrative 35,064 Depreciation and amortization 19,551 Total costs and expenses 223,523 http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/000119312511064249/ds1a.htm http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/0001193125110...

revorad 16y ago

It's funny how when a company actually makes profit, TC writes a short facts-only news story with no commentary or excitement. If it were a story of LinkedIn getting another round of funding, they would be gushing over how it was going to take over the world.