How LinkedIn Won

Social media, for work? The world was skeptical. But 20 years and a few white-knuckle moments later, LinkedIn has become synonymous with networking and it's got more momentum than ever. An oral history of an unlikely champion.

- HARRY MCCRACKEN,Yasmin Gagne, Jared Lindzon, Megan Morrone, and Mark Sullivan

WHEN LINKEDIN LAUNCHED ON MAY 5, 2003, it wasn't a given that it would thrive. Born during the doldrums after the original dotcom bust, it arrived at the same time as a flurry of other social networking upstarts, most of which quickly fizzled. Its emphasis on members' professional lives was seen by some as a strategic blunder. Even the notion of posting your résumé in public was jarringly unfamiliar and likely to be taken as an act of disloyalty.

Rather than falling victim to preexisting assumptions, LinkedIn changed them. Eventually, it was not having a LinkedIn profile that was perceived as a weird career move. As the pandemic and its aftermath have reshaped work, the service has both reflected that new world and equipped workers and employers to succeed in it. Its emphasis on professionalism offers a safe harbor from more toxic and polarizing social platforms.

LinkedIn hasn't escaped the current tech downturn-in February, it announced layoffs-but it's a rare example of a company seeing its greatest success after being bought. When its stock plunged by more than 40% in 2016, Microsoft snapped it up for $26.2 billion but let it chart its own destiny. Today, more than 4,500 job applications are submitted and eight hires are made every minute on the platform. Its revenue surpassed $14 billion in the past 12 months, close to quadruple the figure at the time of acquisition.

The lesson? "The less exciting turtle does win the race sometimes," says Reid Hoffman, the company's co-founder, original guiding light, and first CEO, who went on to become one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley. "We just kept going." To tell LinkedIn's improbable story, we talked to dozens of eyewitnesses, including founders, key employees, early users, independent observers, and current executives. Their comments have been edited for length and clarity.

1997-2003