Brand Stories

History of LinkedIn

How it all started

8 min readMay 10, 2022

Introduction

Can you believe it? LinkedIn turns 19 years younger on 5th May 2022!

In two decades, LinkedIn has transformed the lives of many businesses and individuals like you and me.

We have seen thousands of Gen Z & Millennials turning into independent business owners and roughly 50M individuals use LinkedIn to explore jobs each week.

I am keen to document LinkedIn’s journey right from Co-founder Reid Hoffman’s living room in 2002; yes, you read it right, that is where the idea originated.

LinkedIn was officially established on May 5, 2003, with a mission to connect professionals across the globe to help create an economic possibility for a successful and constructive business opportunity.

Brief History

> November 12, 2003 — LinkedIn secured its first series A financing of €4.47 million from Sequoia Capital, the venture investors behind well-known internet brands such as Yahoo!, Google and PayPal.

> October 13, 2004 — Secures €9.51 Million in Series B from Greylock.

> March 1, 2005 — Announced its first premium service, LinkedIn Jobs.

> August 8, 2005 — Announced the release of LinkedIn Business Accounts.

> November 22, 2005 — Announced two subscription offerings: Pro and Personal Plus.

> January 29, 2007 — Secured €12.17 million in funding from Bessemer Venture Partners (Bessemer).

> February 5, 2007 — Dan Nye succeeded the founder, Reid Hoffman, as the new CEO. In less than two years after Dan Nye’s resignation, Hoffman temporarily took over the position again.

> June 24, 2009 — LinkedIn declared Jeff Weiner as the new Chief Executive Officer.

> June 26, 2007 — Steve Sordello was announced as the new Chief Financial Officer, previously the CFO at Tivo Inc.

> September 27, 2007 — Announced the option of adding a professional photo to the account.

> December 10, 2007 — Introduced the Intelligent Applications Platform.

> February 25, 2008 — Announced launch of the LinkedIn application on mobile devices.

> February 28, 2008 — Introduced a renewed home page with a status feature.

> March 10, 2008 — Announced launch of LinkedIn Recruiter.

> March 21, 2008 — Reported the launch of Company profiles.

> June 18, 2008 — Secured €50.41M in funding from Bain Capital Ventures.

> July 24, 2008 — Launched Spanish version of the LinkedIn Web site.

> November 25, 2008 — Reported launch of French Version of the LinkedIn Website.

> February 2, 2009 — Declared the birth of LinkedIn Talent for recruiters.

> February 3, 2011 — Reported a new feature, the beta version of LinkedIn Skills, to empower professionals and gain career insights.

> March 10, 2011 — Announced launch of the beta of “LinkedIn Today” to deliver bespoke news based on industry.

> July 25, 2011 — Announced the “Apply with LinkedIn” feature for job application submission.

> September 7, 2011 — Announced “Volunteer Experience & Causes” in the profile section.

> October 6, 2011 — Reported on Company Status Updates and Certified Developer Program.

> October 18, 2011 — Declared the launch of LinkedIn Talent Pipeline for recruiters.

> May 3, 2012 — Announced acquisition of acquiring SlideShare.

> April 11, 2013 — Announced acquisition of Pulse, a newsreader, and mobile content distribution platform.

> February 6, 2014 — Announced acquisition of Bright, a data insights and matching technology Company.

> April 9, 2015 — Announced acquisition of Lynda.com now LinkedIn learning.

> June 13, 2016 — Announced LinkedIn acquisition by Microsoft.

> December 8, 2016 — Microsoft officially acquired LinkedIn.

> December 21, 2016 — Launched “LinkedIn for the good initiative “, helping 1 million underserved youth, U.S. veterans, and refugees.

> January 25, 2017 — Officially launched LinkedIn’s new design interface for the desktop.

> February 3, 2017 — Launched monthly LinkedIn Workforce Report.

> March 22, 2017 — Launched Trending Storylines feeds, a curated interest-based feature.

> April 13, 2017 — Introduced innovative messaging feature on the platform.

> May 15, 2017 — Revealed InMail Analytics Report and Job Matches features.

> June 21, 2017 — Introduced search Appearances feature.

> July 25, 2017 — Launched website demographic tool in Campaign Manager to analyze website visitors.

> August 3, 2017 — Revealed LinkedIn Lite mobile web and Android app launch.

> September 6, 2017 — Announced the launch of the Audience network feature.

> November 8, 2017 — Announced the launch of the resume assistant feature.

> March 20, 2018 — Introduced Ask for a Referral feature for applicants.

> March 28, 2018 — Introduced video for sponsored content and company pages.

> June 11, 2018 — Announces carousel ads.

> May 14, 2019 — Launched Instant Job Alerts.

> September 16, 2019 — Announced Skill Assessments feature.

> September 26, 2019 — Notified recruiter mobile app and LinkedIn Talent Insights integration in LinkedIn Recruiter.

> February 5, 2020 — LinkedIn announced Ryan Roslansky, as the new CEO, with effect from June 1, while the former Ceo Jeff Weiner continues his journey with Linkedin in the Executive Chairman role.

> April 29, 2020 — Announced Video Intro and AI-powered interview feedback feature for job seekers.

> September 24, 2020 — Announced its first major visual redesign in five years.

> October 21, 2020 — Announced a commitment to double the number of Black and Latino leaders, managers, and senior individual contributors to its U.S. team over the next five years.

> December 2, 2020 — Announced the launch of LinkedIn Sales Insights.

> January 25, 2021 — Appoints Daniel Shapero as the first-ever Chief Operating Officer.

> Feb 4, 2021 — Announced LinkedIn Integrations with New Microsoft Viva.

> March 24, 2021 — Announced a commitment to equal pay for employees with similar skill sets regardless of their demographics.

> March 30, 2021 — LinkedIn and Microsoft announced the launch of a new resource intending to help 250,000 companies make a skills-based hire in 2021 through global skills initiative earlier launched in Jun 2020.

> June 15, 2021 — Declared participation in the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership with other giants such as Facebook, Inc., Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, Shopify, Twitter, Vimeo, etc.

> December 2, 2021 — Announced launch of LinkedIn in Hindi.

> March 1, 2022 — Announced career break feature.

> Mar30, 2022 — Launches creator Analytics feature for creator mode launched the previous year.

> Mar 31, 22 — Introduced ‘Dyslexic Thinking’ as a skill set that an employee can add to their profile, among other skills, in collaboration with Sir @ Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin group.

Since its inception, LinkedIn has been continuously learning and developing innovations, many of which I may not have covered. Some of the old features I mentioned earlier may not exist today.

If I missed out on anything important that requires a call-out, please drop your feedback in the comment section, and I will be happy to include it.

LinkedIn currently holds 810 million members in more than 200+countries and about 530+ million registered companies making it the largest professional network platform.

Here are some amazing statistics on how Linkedin transformed the lives of millions.

LinkedIn statistics in 2022 — Image Source: LinkedIn Statistics, LinkedIn Page

Jobs:

Every second, 95 nos of job applications are submitted.

88% upsurge in confirmed hires year-over-year in Q3 FY22

50M individuals use LinkedIn to explore jobs each week.

Six no individuals are employed every minute on LinkedIn.

Visibility and Personal Branding:

Whether you are a job seeker, recruitment manager, or a self-sustaining freelancer/ small business owner, at some point, Linkedin has attributed to your growth, helping you accelerate your goals by boosting your professional network to a much larger audience.

Thoughtful & Courteous features:

Let us not forget the #opentowork & #hiring frame LinkedIn introduced during the pandemic in late Oct-Nov 2020.

Likewise, launching #creatormode is helping individuals build their brands. LinkedIn has recently introduced Creator Analytics, which intends to assist content creators in enhancing their content strategy.

Inclusivity and Diversity:

On July 6, 2020, LinkedIn announced the name enunciation audio clip feature ( set up only available on mobile) to support inclusivity in the workplace.

Correspondingly, the LinkedIn profile is presently available in 26 different languages; did you get a chance to explore it?

Empathetic Features:

Career break has been the reason for rejection for some of the best applicants. LinkedIn made millions empowered and elated when it introduced the career break feature in March 2022.

Time has changed, and LinkedIn is normalizing career breaks and encouraging individuals to elucidate their side of the anecdote, whether personal or professional.

Well, the story does not end here; as of early April 2022, LinkedIn did it again, wherein it collaborated with Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin group, to introduce #dyslexicthinking as a skill that can be added to an individual’s LinkedIn profile to make them feel empowered about their unique way of thinking.

This latest update on Dyslexia is probably my favourite on LinkedIn, as it is personal and meaningful. Furthermore, I am a big fan of Sir. @Richard Branson.