Professional social-networking companies are recovering well from the recession, boosted by a surge in members and growth in fees from advertisers and recruiters.
Membership of professional social networks such as LinkedIn and Viadeo has bloomed since late 2008 as tens of millions of workers around the world have sought to widen their “safety networks” fearing worsening economies.
“People spend less time on Facebook and more time on Viadeo during recession,” said Dan Serfaty, chief executive of the world’s second largest professional social networking site.
It is almost a perfect mix, you have this underlying fear, but at the same time the economy is still growing, so business with recruiters, advertisers is exploding
As the economic climate improves, recruiters and advertisers are returning to use the services, while continuing uncertainties over sustainability of the recovery and European economic problems are still boosting take-up.
“It is almost a perfect mix, you have this underlying fear, but at the same time the economy is still growing, so business with recruiters, advertisers is exploding,” Serfaty said.
Martin Olausson, director of the digital media strategies unit at research firm Strategy Analytics, believes fears over job losses have sparked subscriber interest. “Because of the recession, a lot of people have updated their resumés and increased their professional networking activities in the last year,” he said.
LinkedIn has more than 65 million members, compared with some 30 million members of Viadeo, and is among the web’s fastest-growing social networking sites.
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.
