 Vision › Positions itself as a full service professional “productivity tool” (not just personal networking or jobsite) › It can be argued that Social Networking will naturally segment along the same lines as traditional media with solid defensible niche for business oriented service › Building high switching costs Full Service Professional productivity Tool Growth of Social Networking Build Switching Costs

 Value Proposition › Strives to draw professional users by improving its offerings and differentiating itself from Social networking Sites(SNSes) that promote personal and recreational Social Networking. › Driving users to visit LinkedIn for multiple reasons. › Reaching other networks while preserving privacy. Differentiate Drive users to visit for multiple reasons Connectivity without compromising privacy

 Value Proposition › Rolled out a new home page comprising LinkedIn News News feed based on fellow members viewing behavior News feed on industry, products or interests Customizable Modules Users could tailor their personal homepage. Example, “Answers”, “People”, “Jobs” Status Effective way to engage and tap into knowledge of the system. Advice, hire etc.

 Business Model: five sources of revenue AdvertisingSubscriptionJob postings Primary Research Corporate Solutions

 Platform Management › Functions as a technology platform on which users can build applications for value additions. › Allowed Google’s OpenSocial platform to create conference calendar. › Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn has stricter controls and quality standards. › LinkedIn philosophy “ We won’t allow viral spreading of unprofessional applications”.

 International Expansion › Languages other than English planned: French, Japanese, Spanish. › Chinese: Be more specific › Japanese culture looks down upon disloyalty to current employer. › In China it is spend months to het recommendations and personal referrals, so current model many not work.

 Competition Professional network Services Social Network Services Xing Monster Specialized: The Ladders Facebook MySpace Orkut

 Strategic Dilemma 1  Strategic Dilemma 2 Closed Environment Open Exclusively Professional Go Social

 Network Effects in Social Networks  Evaluation of LinkedIn’s Strategy  Evaluating the Dilemmas

 LinkedIn in links Users, Application Developers, recruiters, Advertisers, and Experts.  Company should explore where the network effects are strongest and what are the potential negative network effects. › Positive effect: Positive sum game between entities › Negative effect: Zero sum game between entities.

USERS RECRUITERS ADVERTIZERS APPLICATION DEVELOPERS EXPERTS

 Two conflicting Arguments Market Will TipMarket won’t tip Global marketsGeographically Segmented Switching Costs to move networksLow switching costs, easy to multi- home Platform: Applications will emergeOpenSocial (Google) Levels the playing field Professions are a distinct segmentSocial Networks will engulf PNS Quality of users attract other quality users Vertical and horizontal segmentations

Marketing: Viral Customer Acquisitions Pricing: For non-premium users. Attracts a large no. of users Focus: High Quality Professions (Great Audience) Business Model: Robust with Multiple Revenue Streams Creating Platforms for Applications Great Propositions for Job Seekers: Don’t have to alert your employers

Face book may create a separate PNS Page Substitute technologies: True cloud computing where all profiles are available on the Net Open Social (Google) may commodizes the PNS space No Deep and established switching costs Network gets diluted with growth Will the model really work across several cultures

 Advantages of Dismantling the Walled Garden Getting Ahead of the curve Developing Loyalty through Openness Benefitting from Interoperability with other online communities

 Disadvantages Opening the Platforms to users Undermining Some of LinkedIn Specific network effects Losing the ability to control user experience; loss of quality control Could LinkedIn monetize the users as effectively, if it was truly open.

 Advantages of adding social networking services › Leveraging a platform that is already in place. › Increasing “stickiness’ of services and increasing the frequency of visits. Where do you visit more? LinkedIn or Facebook.

 Disadvantages of adding social networking services › Diluting the LinkedIn brand and its differentiation from big SNSes › Failing in efforts to compete with big SNSes