SURF’S UP

The success of Facebook may be the talk of the town, says David Crow, but a number of serious competitors are catching up fast

Amid the hype that surrounds Facebook, it is easy to forget how well other social networks are doing. LinkedIn, a business-orientated network based in California, has been quietly building an impressive user base since it hit profitability in 2006. With over 17m users – up from 8m in February – the site is registering new customers at a rate of 1m a month and was at one point growing faster than Facebook. Internal revenue targets for this year are between $75m and $100m.

The site’s no-nonsense approach has chimed with the international business community, being used across 150 industries in over 400 economic areas and boasting at least one executive member from every Fortune 500 company. Unlike its rivals, the sober LinkedIn is intended to be useful, not amusing. It currently enables its users to keep in touch with and introduce contacts, search for jobs and employees and pose questions to the business community. Although these tools are useful, the site’s functionality is still rather narrow, making visits intermittent and patchy.

But like almost every other social network, LinkedIn hopes to make its product more successful by opening its platform to external developers. Last month, the site received a much-needed redesign and joined Google’s Open Social programme to add new “modules” – similar to Facebook applications – that will provide extra functionality and encourage daily usage. Although the facelift is still in beta testing, the new modules are impressive; a calendar that automatically lists important events in a user’s industry and a tailored newsfeed, like an automatic press cutting service, are two of the best.

LinkedIn’s biggest advantage is the relative maturity of its clients. With the average user aged 41, the company has managed to build a profitable and successful site without the help of the Facebook Generation. When younger users graduate and start using LinkedIn, the site could see a rate of growth that would make its recent successes pale in comparison.