LinkedIn

The company operates a multi-sided professional network that connects workers, employers, recruiters, sales teams and marketers. It creates value by maintaining a large, structured graph of professional identities, relationships, skills and company data, and by offering tools that use this graph for hiring, sales prospecting, professional learning and B2B marketing.

On the demand side, it sells recruiting and talent products (jobs, recruiter licences, employer branding), sales intelligence subscriptions, online learning access and targeted advertising to professional audiences. On the supply/user side, it offers free accounts that encourage professionals and companies to maintain accurate profiles, post content and interact, which increases data quality and engagement. Network effects and accumulated profile and behavioural data underpin its value proposition for paying business customers.

LinkedIn is a US-based professional networking and employment platform owned by Microsoft. It operates a global social network focused on work identities, enabling user profiles, professional content, messaging, job listings, recruitment tools, B2B advertising and online learning. The company has expanded through acquisitions in content, learning, job matching and marketing technology.

It generates revenue from businesses and individual professionals through recruitment and talent solutions, job postings, sales prospecting tools, online learning subscriptions and B2B advertising targeted to professional attributes. Core customers are employers, recruiters, sales teams, learning and development departments and B2B marketers who pay for access to the member graph, tools to hire and sell, and advertising inventory, alongside premium subscriptions purchased by individual professionals.