Timeline of LinkedIn

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

Big picture

Time period	Key developments at LinkedIn
2002 - 2010	LinkedIn 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 - 2016	LinkedIn goes IPO, reaches beyond 100 million users, and expands more aggressively internationally. It reaches 300 million members in 2013, and 400 million in 2016.

Full timeline

Year	Month and date	Event type	Details
2002	november 2	Company	LinkedIn is start to develop by team Reid Hoffman recruited.
2002	December 14	Company	LinkedIn is founded by Reid Hoffman and 4 other friends.[1]
2003	May 5	Company	LinkedIn cofounders send invitations, launching LinkedIn.[1]
2003	August	Competition	XING, a social networking site for professionals, is launched in Germany.
2003	Autumn	Funding	Sequoia Capital leads the Series A investment in the company.[2]
2004	May	Competition	Viadeo - a social networking site for business owners, entrepreneurs and managers - is launched in France.
2004	August	Growth	LinkedIn reaches 1 million users.[1]
2005	July	Product	LinkedIn launches LinkedIn for Groups, a premium service aimed at power users like recruiters, analysts and researchers.[3]
2005	August	Product	LinkedIn launches a premium service, LinkedIn Business Accounts, which gives businesses access to more powerful search tools.[4]
2006	March	Company	LinkedIn achieves its first month of profitability.[1]
2007	February	Team	Dan Nye becomes CEO of LinkedIn, and Reid Hoffman moves from CEO to chairman and president.[1]
2007	April	Growth	LinkedIn reaches 10 million users.[1]
2007	May	Product	LinkedIn launches "who's been viewing your profile" feature.[5]
2008	February	Product	LinkedIn launches a mobile version of the site.
2008	April	Product	LinkedIn launches “People You May Know” feature.[6]
2008	June	Funding	Sequoia 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.[7]
2008	October	Product	LinkedIn 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.[8]
2009	December	Internationalization	LinkedIn opens office in India, and says that 50% of its userbase is now international.[9]
2010	March	Internationalization	LinkedIn opens an International Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland,[10]
2010	July	Funding	LinkedIn receives a $20 million investment from Tiger Global Management LLC at a valuation of approximately $2 billion,[11]
2010	August	Acquisitions	LinkedIn announces its first acquisition, Mspoke, for its “adaptive personalization engine”.[12]
2011	May 19	Company	LinkedIn IPOs and trades its first shares under the NYSE symbol "LNKD", at $45 per share.[1]
2011	July	Product	LinkedIn launches a new feature allowing companies to include an "Apply with LinkedIn" button on job listing pages.[13] 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.[13]
2012	February 22	Acquisitions	LinkedIn announces that it will acquire Rapportive, a Gmail plugin that shows people the social media profiles from whoever they're corresponding with on Gmail.[14]
2012	June	Company	LinkedIn falls victim to a hacking attempt that resulted in 6.5 million hashed passwords reportedly leaked.[15]
2012	September	Product	LinkedIn starts allowing users to endorse each other's skills.
2012	October	Product	LinkedIn launches the "Influencer" program, allowing selected “thought leaders” (their term) to share original content directly with LinkedIn users.[16]
2013	January	Competition	TalentBin launches. It is a "search engine" for talented people that picks up their digital tracks (on sites like Stack Exchange) to sell to recruiters.[17]
2013	July 23	Product	LinkedIn 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.[18]
2013	April	Acquisitions	LinkedIn acquires Pulse (app), a popular newsreader for the web and mobile.[19]
2013	September	Legal	A 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.[20]
2014	April	Internationalization	LinkedIn launches a new Chinese website in the Chinese language.[21]
2014	April	Company	LinkedIn 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
2014	July 14	Acquisitions	LinkedIn acquires Newsle, a service that allows users to follow real news about their Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, and public figures.[22]
2015	January 14	Competition	Facebook 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.[23]
2015	April 9	Acquisitions	In 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.[24]
2015	May 7	Product	LinkedIn adds an analytics tool to its publishing platform. The tool allows authors to better track traffic that their posts receive.[25]
2016	February	Company	LinkedIn'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.[26][27]

References

1. Ann Byers (15 July 2013). Reid Hoffman and Linkedin. The Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 2003–. ISBN 978-1-4488-9537-3.
2. "LinkedIn | Crunchbase Profile". CrunchBase. TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 29, 2011. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
3. "LinkedIn Launches Premium Service - InternetNews.". Internetnews.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
4. "LinkedIn Corporation - Linkedin Launches Premium Service For Recruiters And Researchers". Retrieved April 20, 2016.
5. "Guess who's viewed your profile?". Retrieved April 20, 2016.
6. "Learn more about "People You May Know"". Retrieved April 20, 2016.
7. 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.
8. Facebook in a Suit: LinkedIn Launches Applications Platform, Business Week, October 28, 2008
9. "LinkedIn Furthers Expansion In India With Local Office And Media Partnerships". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
10. "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.
11. 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.
12. Hardy, Quentin (August 4, 2010). "LinkedIn Hooks Up". Forbes. Archived from the original on August 5, 2010. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
13. Colleen Taylor, GigaOm. "LinkedIn launches job application plugin." July 25, 2009. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
14. "Rapportive Announces Acquisition By LinkedIn, (Basically) Confirms $15M Price". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
15. "LinkedIn is 10 Years Old: Here's How it Changed the Way we Work". Thenextweb.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
16. "The Surprising Brilliance Of The LinkedIn Influencers Program". Retrieved April 20, 2016.
17. "TalentBin Takes On LinkedIn By Targeting Recruiters". Fastcompany.com. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
18. "LinkedIn Expands Ad Program With Launch Of Sponsored Updates Program". Techcruch.com. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
19. "LinkedIn Acquires Pulse For $90M In Stock And Cash". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
20. "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.
21. "LinkedIn Expands in China With Local Website - Bloomberg". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
22. "LinkedIn Acquires Start-Up Newsle". 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
23. "Facebook Unveils Facebook At Work, Lets Businesses Create Their Own Social Networks". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
24. "LinkedIn just bought online learning company Lynda for $1.5 billion". Business Insider. 2015-04-09. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
25. By Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch. “"Who's Viewed Your Posts?" LinkedIn Adds Analytics To Its Publishing Platform.” May 7, 2015. May 7, 2015.
26. Luc Cohen (February 8, 2016). "CEOs, venture backers lose big as LinkedIn, Tableau shares tumble". Reuters.
27. http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/04/linkedin-reports-q4-earnings.html