[7] LinkedIn allows members (both employees and employers) to create profiles and connect with each other in an online social network which may represent real-world professional relationships.

In 2010, LinkedIn opened an International Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland,[24] received a $20 million investment from Tiger Global Management LLC at a valuation of approximately $2 billion,[25] announced its first acquisition, Mspoke,[26] and improved its 1% premium subscription ratio.

[35] The goal was to join all San Francisco-based staff (1,250 as of January 2016) in one building, bringing sales and marketing employees together with the research and development team.

[36][37] In 2016, access to LinkedIn was blocked by Russian authorities for non-compliance with the 2015 national legislation that requires social media networks to store citizens' personal data on servers located in Russia.

[48] In late July 2020, LinkedIn announced it laid off 960 employees, about 6 percent of the total workforce, from the talent acquisition and global sales teams.

[59] In September 2024, LinkedIn suspended its use of UK user data for AI model training after concerns were raised by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

[60] In November 2024, Linkedin challenged Australian legislation which sought to ban under-16's from social media platforms on the grounds that it does 'not have content interesting and appealing to minors.

[62] In 2013, a class action lawsuit entitled Perkins vs. LinkedIn Corp was filed against the company, accusing it of automatically sending invitations to contacts in a member's email address book without permission.

[93] The basic functionality of LinkedIn allows users to create profiles, which for employees typically consist of a curriculum vitae describing their work experience, education and training, skills, and a personal photo.

[101] The developer API allows both companies and individuals the ability to interact with LinkedIn's data through creation of managed third-party applications.

[citation needed] A mobile version of the site was launched in February 2008 and made available in six languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.

[123] LinkedIn is particularly well-suited for personal branding, which, according to Sandra Long, entails "actively managing one's image and unique value" to position oneself for career opportunities.

[124] LinkedIn has evolved from being a mere platform for job searchers into a social network which allows users a chance to create a personal brand.

[125] Career coach Pamela Green describes a personal brand as the "emotional experience you want people to have as a result of interacting with you," and a LinkedIn profile is an aspect of that.

[126] A contrasting report suggests that a personal brand is "a public-facing persona, exhibited on LinkedIn, Twitter and other networks, that showcases expertise and fosters new connections.

[134] The program is invite-only and features leaders from a range of industries, including Richard Branson, Narendra Modi, Arianna Huffington, Greg McKeown, Rahm Emanuel, Jamie Dimon, Martha Stewart, Deepak Chopra, Jack Welch, and Bill Gates.

LinkedIn's Profinder is a marketplace where freelancers can (for a monthly subscription fee) bid for project proposals submitted by individuals and small businesses.

[142] This change means LinkedIn is a more proactive networking site for job applicants trying to secure a career move or for salespeople wanting to generate new client leads.

[144] Since 2015, LinkedIn has published annual rankings of Top Voices on the platform, recognizing "members that generated the most engagement and interaction with their posts.

[149] In October 2008, LinkedIn revealed plans to open its social network of 30 million professionals globally as a potential sample for business-to-business research.

With carousel ads, businesses can showcase their products or services through a series of swipeable cards, each with its unique image, headline, and description.

They can be used for various marketing objectives, such as promoting a new product launch, driving website traffic, generating leads, or building brand awareness.

"[158][159] LinkedIn has published blog posts using economic graph data to research several topics on the job market, including popular destination cities of recent college graduates,[160] areas with high concentrations of technology skills,[161] and common career transitions.

[166] LinkedIn has inspired the creation of specialised professional networking opportunities, such as co-founder Eddie Lou's Chicago startup, Shiftgig (released in 2012 as a platform for hourly workers).

In November 2014, LinkedIn lost a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, in a ruling that the invitations were advertisements not broadly protected by free speech rights that would otherwise permit use of people's names and images without authorization.

[185][186] In what is known as Operation Socialist, documents released by Edward Snowden in the 2013 global surveillance disclosures revealed that British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) (an intelligence and security organisation) infiltrated the Belgian telecommunications network Belgacom by luring employees to a false LinkedIn page.

Rhee, Hwang, and Tan further found that referring employees in higher hierarchical positions than the job candidates were more likely to provide referrals and that gender homophily did not reduce the competition self-protection effect.

[203] In July 2019, sociologists Steve McDonald, Amanda K. Damarin, Jenelle Lawhorne, and Annika Wilcox performed qualitative interviews with 61 human resources recruiters in two metropolitan areas in the Southern United States and found that recruiters filling low- and general-skilled positions typically posted advertisements on online job boards while recruiters filling high-skilled or supervisor positions targeted passive candidates on LinkedIn (i.e. employed workers not actively seeking work but possibly willing to change positions), and concluded that this is resulting in a bifurcated winner-takes-all job market with recruiters focusing their efforts on poaching already employed high-skilled workers while active job seekers are relegated to hyper-competitive online job boards.

[207] In 2020, Applied Economics published research by economists Steffen Brenner, Sezen Aksin Sivrikaya, and Joachim Schwalbach using LinkedIn demonstrating that high status individuals self-select into professional networking services rather than workers unsatisfied with their career status adversely selecting into the services to receive networking benefits.

[225] Massive amounts of data from LinkedIn allow scientists and machine learning researchers to extract insights and build product features.