Wondering the net worth of LinkedIn? Well, check out this article to find out LinkedIn’s net worth, important growth milestones etc. below.
LinkedIn calls itself the “world’s largest professional network” connecting over 770 million users worldwide and more than 19,000 full time employees working from more than 30 locations around the globe.
Launched in 2003, the main objective of LinkedIn is to provide a platform for professional networking and career growth. Registered job seekers post their CVs on this site, recruiters post jobs.
LinkedIn operates via mobile apps and websites. Majority of the company’s income in 2015 ensued from selling the information access about its members to sales professionals and recruiters.
In December 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn and since then, it has been a fully owned subsidy of the IT giant. As per the September 2021 stats, Linked In has over 774 million registered users spread across more than 200 geographical territories.
How much is the net worth of LinkedIn?
LinkedIn’s net worth is estimated at $3.8 billion in November 2021. It’s the world’s largest global professional networking site.
On LinkedIn platform, employees and employers create their profiles and connect on the online social network facilitating professional relationships of real world kind. Members can create connections by inviting new or existing members to their network.
LinkedIn is also used for organizing events, publishing articles and job postings, and sharing videos and photos and several other socializing activities. Here we explore LinkedIn net worth and how it made such a huge amount of money.
LinkedIn Net Worth: Quick Summary
| Company Name | |
| Business type | Fully owned subsidiary of Microsoft |
| Nature of business | Professional networking service |
| No of languages | 24 |
| Date of founding | May 5, 2003 |
| Founder | Reid Hoffman |
| Headquarters | Sunnyvale, California, U.S. |
| Date of acquisition by Microsoft | 13 June, 2016 ($26.2 billion) |
| CEO | Ryan Roslansky |
| 2021 revenue | $10 billion |
| 2021 net income | $159 million |
| No. of employees in 2021 | Over 19,000 |
| No. of users | Over 774 million |
Net Worth Of LinkedIn
LinkedIn net worth in 2021 stands at $3.8 billion. A company’s net worth is calculated by subtracting its total liabilities from total assets. LinkedIn’s total assets in 2021 is $6.8 billion and its current assets after subtracting liabilities is $3.8 billion, which is taken as its net worth.
In 2020, the company’s net worth stood at $3.5 billion and in 2015 it had a net worth of $3.9 billion. Its net worth peaked in 2014 touching $4.1billion.
The market cap of LinkedIn in 2021 is $22.59 billion. Market cap is described as the total market value of a company’s outstanding shares of stock. In 2012, the market cap of LinkedIn stood at $12.3 billion. In 2013, it was valued at $25.9 billion. The market cap values were recorded at $28.5 billion in 2014 and $29.5 billion in 2015.
In February 2016, LinkedIn’s valuation fell by about $11 billion and around this time, the stocks of most other social media companies also slid down significantly. A few months later on 13 June, 2016 Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in a deal worth $26.2 billion. Notably, this was the largest acquisition Microsoft accomplished in its history considering the total value of the deal.
LinkedIn generated a total revenue of $8 billion in 2020. This is an increase of about 19 percent over the revenues made in 2019. The total number of registered users on LinkedIn is around 770 million in 2021 with the majority of members hailing from the US. More than 57 million businesses and 120,000 schools have subscribed to LinkedIn.
In 2010, LinkedIn annual revenue stood at $243 million. For the first time, the annual revenue of the firm crossed the $1 billion watermark in 2013 standing at a whopping $1.5 billion. In 2018, 2019 and 2020 the revenues of the company are reported to be $5.2 billion, $6.7 billion and $8 billion respectively.
In 2016, the revenue generated from the US users accounted for LinkedIn’s 61% of LinkedIn’s total revenue. The revenue from the international markets stood at 39%.
After Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, the financials of LinkedIn were consolidated with that of the parent company. In 2018, LinkedIn brought in revenue of $5.3 billion to Microsoft. This is a marked increase of $2.3 when compared with the figures of 2017.
Important Milestones In Growth of LinkedIn
Reid Hoffman started LinkedIn in 2012 as a professional networking platform. In 2003, Sequoia Capital championed the Series A investment in LinkedIn. In August, LinkedIn was used by over 1 million people.
It was in March 2006, LinkedIn broke even and landed on its first month of profitability. By 2007, LinkedIn had attracted over 10 million users worldwide. In 2008, LinkedIn launched its first mobile version.
In 2008, a handful of venture capitalists including Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners bought a 5% stake in the company with the deal valued at $53 million.
This move resulted in the company’s post-money valuation of around $1 billion. LinkedIn opened its Mumbai office in 2009 and soon after started an office in Sydney too. LinkedIn started its India operations around this time.
LinkedIn’s International Headquarters opened in Dublin, Ireland in 2010. In the same year, LinkedIn Tiger Global Management LLC pumped in $20 million as investment in LinkedIn. LinkedIn went in to acquire Mspoke in a deal worth $2 billion in 2010. Around this time, LinkedIn also increased its 1% premium subscription ratio.
In 2010 October, Silicon Valley Insider placed the company in the 10th position among the top 100 highly valuable startups. By the end of 2010, LinkedIn was valued in private markets at $1.575 billion.
LinkedIn’s IPO happened in 2011. The initial sale gave away LinkedIn shares at a price of $45 per share. On the very first day of trade, LinkedIn stock prices rose by about 171%. The closing price of $95.25 was much higher than the IPO price with a margin of 109%.
In 2011, LinkedIn’s advertising revenue alone was $154.6 million which was more than Twitter which made only $139.5 million. On June 13, 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in a deal worth $26.2 billion. The price of each share during this deal was $196. Notably, this is the largest acquisition Microsoft made till date.
After acquiring the firm, Microsoft allowed it to continue with its distinct brand, independence and organization culture. By 2016, LinkedIn had over 1,200 employees. 2017 statistics show that LinkedIn was used by over 94% of B2B marketers for distributing content.
In 2017, the all new desktop version of LinkedIn was introduced which assured a seamless user experience across mobiles and desktops. Based on the learning from market research, LinkedIn changed several features of LinkedIn in this new version. In 2019, LinkedIn opened a global feature enabling businesses to discover freelancers on its platform.
In 2020, Jeff Weiner stepped down as CEO and became the executive chairman of the firm. Ryan Roslansky assumed the office as CEO of LinkedIn. In 2020, the firm laid off around 6 percent of its total workforce saying this was necessitated due to Covid-19 pandemic. Microsoft rolled back LinkedIn’s China operations in 2021.
How Does Linkedin Make Money
As LinkedIn mentions, the objective of this world’s largest professional social media network is to “connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”
The major part of LinkedIn revenue ensues from its three major service offerings including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions.
In simple terms, these services can be described as selling advertising, membership privileges and recruitment services. Talent Solutions: Before Microsoft acquired the professional networking platform in 2016, about 65% of the company’s revenue during the third quarter (valued at $960 million) ensued from recruitment services.
Also known as Talent Solutions, these are services that are sold to professional recruiters or employers. While the hiring department of this segment helps recruiters discover, attract and hire the right talents, the Learning and Development segment offers learning content and courses to enterprises and individuals.
Marketing Solutions: This segment of LinkedIn is the platform for firms that wish to advertise to LinkedIn users. In 2016, the total revenue this segment generated for the company was $109 million. The activities of this segment include selling advertisements to online marketers and sale of sponsored updates that are posted to the targeted members in the LinkedIn feed.
Premium Subscriptions: The rest of LinkedIn’s revenue estimated at 17% of its earnings amounting to $162 million in 2016 came from the premium subscriptions segment. This service enables the members to increase their search results and also send messages on the email system offered by LinkedIn.
This service also lets the users get connected to the members outside their networks and gather information about those that have viewed their profiles.
Also included in the Premium Subscriptions segment is the Sales Solutions, that assists the salespersons generate quality leads and increase the sales through social networking. Since LinkedIn is available for free for the basic members, only about 21% of LinkedIn members are having premium subscriptions on a payment basis.
LinkedIn under Microsoft
Microsoft acquired LinkedIn on June 13, 2016 paying $26.2 billion. In five years after the acquisition by Microsoft, LinkedIn reported the first $10 billion in annual revenue in July 2021.
During this quarter, the firm’s revenue rose by about 46%. Talking to analysts, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, “it is a testament to how mission-critical the platform has become to help people connect, learn, grow and get hired over the course of their careers.”
The significant increase in revenue signaling LinkedIn’s successful growth and continuing popularity among the users, this increase in revenue is also a proof to highlight the advantages of having multiple revenue streams. Notably, LinkedIn’s revenue ensues from advertising as well as subscriptions.
As per Microsoft, the advertising revenue of LinkedIn exceeded $1 billion for the first time over the latest quarter showing up a 97% increase from the previous year. LinkedIn has been partly benefited from a significant number of advertisers shifting their spending from Facebook.
Talking about the growth of LinkedIn under Microsoft, Satya Nadella said, “In the past five years since our acquisition, revenue has nearly tripled and growth has accelerated. LinkedIn has become a leader across multiple secular growth areas spanning B2B advertising, professional hiring, corporate learning and sales intelligence.”
Summary