As reported by Techcrunch UK, business networking goliath LinkedIn has made the jump from the US and opened their first foreign office here in London, where they plan to continue their massive growth and I assume subsequently crush/assimilate Euro-rival Xing. LinkedIn is working hard to increase site usefulness and functionality, as evidenced by the rising popularity of their answers section and jobs boards, and while they currently have more users in Europe than Xing (4 million to their 3 million), I have to wonder how much farther their dominance will spread in Europe.
Despite the rapid worldwide expansion of Western sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, I think there is is always going to be some local pushback blocking global convergence to just one or two social networking sites. For example, Facebook has barely made a dent in Asia, where countries have their own networks that are more than holding their own because of their culturally unique features. Rather than using the wall-posting features on Bebo/Myspace/Facebook, Chinese users tend to prefer social networks with IM-based communication while Japanese site Mixi is more of a one-stop-shop with both personal and business funcationality.
That’s going to be the challenge for LinkedIn, as it has to contend with the fact that not only do people communicate differently across cultures, but they do business differently too. I’ll be interested to see if they taylor the site and interface to attract users who don’t prescribe to the American-led social networking model, or if they’ll continue with things as is and just hoover up the smaller networks. A third way is also possible, with LinkedIn offering a global network and with niche industry or national sites popping up to fill in the gaps. Whatever way it happens, the LinkedIn juggernaut is rolling and while its possible that global users will reject it if it gets too overbearing, things seem to be running smoothly for now.
Never heard of LinkedIn before. I’ve only really had experience with bebo, and i found it limiting in places where it needn’t be and sprawling/messy in appearence. It always seemed like it was missing some of the simple features that older social networking blogs such as live journal had.
I think brand loyalty plays a huge part in social networking penetration, just as any other established product. Although as people get more comfortable with social networking sites in general, they may be more willing to diverge from their comfort zones and shop around.
LinkedIn and Bebo are worlds apart in that LinkedIn is aimed squarely at business professionals as opposed to the Kate Modern young UK/NZ/Irish generation on Bebo.
I’m not so sure that its the case that people are loyal to certain social networking sites right now, and that its more of a situation where users tend to be on networks where the majority of their friends are. I think you are right that people are starting to shop around more now, especially as as data portability gets easier and easier.
Well for people outside the internet literaty, it can often seem like a potentially daunting place. Alot of people who who had no great intrest in the internet for anything more then functional services, got there first taste of the social aspect through sites like bebo and face book. For some they can be a gateway to exploring other aspects, but for many they only use them as a cursory form of networking and have little interest in experimenting with unfamiliar media or other social networking sites.
I see it in people i know and don’t all around me, there is a brand loyalty to sites (especially bebo) and especially amongst women. There is a degree of the social networking population that are willing to shift if there is an incentive, but this flux is hampered to some extent by the people who still view the majority of the internet as a very technically exclusive place.
It’s that unfamiliarity threshold that causes brand loyalty to most products.