Silicon Alley Insider writer Nicholas Carlson scored a nice interview with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, and reports that things are well.
The key factoids: LinkedIn is in the black, and ad revenue is up 50% over last year.
I found other comments more interesting…
Read for yourself
So – here’s the article, and you ought to read it:
LinkedIn Still Profitable With Ad Revenues Up 50%
Profitable for 2 years
LinkedIn first made money in 2007, so they’ve being doing well to remain in the black since then – so many other companies never figure out how to make money or do so for only a short amount of time.
LinkedIn laid off 10% of its staff in late 2008, so it hasn’t been without some obstacles.
Expert Network
It hadn’t occurred to me that LinkedIn was interested in the “expert network” market, so instead of seeing the partnership with DeMatteo Monness as taking away from their potential, I thought it added.
Business success
Weiner tells us that subscriptions, corporate recruitment and ad sales are all doing well – and ad sales are up 50%.
So here’s one way to look at it – if ad sales were very low, it’s easy to get improvement;-)
But hey – they’ve got to make money to stay in the game, so it’s good to see.
A bit counter-cyclical
In this economic climate, it is not surprising that a service like LinkedIn’s is doing well – everyone “knows” that job seekers really need to use the system.
That’s why interest in this blog is up, sales of my book are strong, and posts about job related matters get more reads than others.
It’s also why I continue to mention that LinkedIn is also great at helping you be more effective in the job that you have just gotten, are holding onto, or want to have;-)
Weiner didn’t mention an exit strategy for the company – you shouldn’t have one either.
To your continued success,
steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock