Reid Hoffman, the founder of Linkedin, only got his first computer when he was in college. This might surprise you, as our natural tendency is to assume that anyone who comes up with a social network of any sort must inevitably be a geek, who has been bred and raised on computers and technology, pretty much from the moment he/she popped out. Anyway, the point is that Reid Hoffman was not necessarily that kind of geek 
. However, he was always fascinated by the idea of improving people’s ecosystems – be it civics, education or economics – and it was largely this idea that started him on the path, which eventually led him to develop Linkedin.
He realised that software development had the potential to drastically alter people’s lives, and so initially began his working career at Apple and Fujitsu. He then started Socialnet, an earlier social-networking site, however soon became dissatisfied with the direction in which it was going. It was at this time that he got involved with PayPal, and saw how the world was changing, as well as the potential niche opportunity that this change provided.
People in the workplace were no longer content to do the same thing for the next 20 years. Instead they were becoming more pro-active and involved in finding new jobs, new ideas, and new opportunities. In the same breath the Internet was changing the world, allowing people access to information like it had never been experienced before – the world was literally at ones fingertips.
Reid Hoffman recognized this niche opportunity – a chance to fill the gap, and bring together employers, employees, and individuals from all walks of the professional life, in order to create one virtual community. If well executed, this could become a vibrant and interactive community, where people could exchange ideas, resumes, skills, as well as present their business opportunities. Essentially, this would be a platform from which people could expand their professional profiles, whilst to some degree cutting out the middleman in the sense that an employer (be it corporate, creative, full-time, freelance etc), and potential employee, could have direct contact.
It would also provide a framework that allowed individuals to problem-solve quickly – by establishing connections within a vibrant and interactive professional community, the possibilities of finding work opportunities, as well as the right individual/s for a particular job, are expanded and quickened. All-in-all, this concept held great appeal because if utilised properly, it would give individuals more control over their professional journeys – one could strategically map out one’s course. It is therefore not surprising that when Linkedin (the website) was launched, on the 5 May 2003, it was destined to succeed.
Linkedin is older than social networking sites, and platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Youtube. It is also smaller than these, in terms of the subscribers and users it has (it surpassed 50 million users last year), yet continues to grow with no visible rivals in site. This is largely due to the specific needs that it meets – it is not really competing with social networks such as Facebook, MySpace etc. They fill a social need, whereas the focus of Linkedin is a virtual professional community, which hold the potential to translate into an individuals professional reality.
I have read a lot of the things people have had to say about Linkedin and why they love it, but my favourite quote still goes as follows:
“I like LinkedIn because, for me, it does a great job of what it is supposed to do”
Simply put, it has filled the niche it was created for.
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