Ask HN: Can a new LinkedIn competitor survive? If yes, what strategies can help?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4401381

by usablebytes • 14 years ago

7 11 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

koopajah• 14 years ago

There are already some LinkedIn competitor out there that do more than survive. In France Viadeo (http://viadeo.com) is pretty popular/used.

usablebytes3• 14 years ago

Rightly mentioned. So, do you see any common gap they all have where a new competitor can capitalize on?

novourchin• 14 years ago

A LN competitor should do more to encourage meaningful discussion in the forums and find a way to keep recruiters from using the site to troll for qualified applicants.Really, the glut of recruiters on LN makes it near-impossible to effectively network on the site anymore. Instead of charging real professionals, they should charge the recruiters through the nose and segregate them like the bottom feeders they are.

usablebytes3• 14 years ago

I couldn't agree more. Thanks a lot for sharing.

1123581321• 14 years ago

A common strategy is to sign up users with LinkedIn auth and develop extra functionality around LinkedIn data.

I'm only aware of one American company intended to be a LinkedIn killer, Zerply. Its distinguishing feature is better-looking profiles. It also used LinkedIn auth to import data.

yllus• 14 years ago

A really strong feature in my mind would be one that highly encourages mentoring between site members. Provide a short list of mentor recommendations to both the mentor and mentees, and reward both with profile badges to encourage others to do the same.

itsprofitbaron• 14 years ago

A new LinkedIn competitor can survive and it can even thrive.

Off the top of my head, some of LinkedIn's competitors include the likes of:

BranchOut

Viadeo

Xing

Bizily

partnerup

company.com

Zerply

If you're looking for what strategies can help to survive, then you should look at how those guys have grown (not only the likes of Viadeo/Xing but how BranchOut have done leveraging the Facebook Platform).

Likewise, you should look at how you can make it "better" in a way that will entice users to join - Zerply mainly tries to do this via better looking profiles. This feature may involve something related to recruiters - maybe even giving them a seperate profile - where they can still find people to recruit for their clients but also so people can use the service for what its for networking.

Infact, you shouldn't limit yourself to looking at how LinkedIn and its competitors have grown - you should also look at other Social Networks and how they've grown as well e.g. Instagram, Badoo, Tagged etc

Similarly, if you're planning on "going viral" and a "great product" then it isn't enough! You need to have a great distribution strategy above anything else.

And if you want to create a "LinkedIn Killer" then it has to be significantly different like how Facebook was to Myspace and for LinkedIn to not notice it (you have to appear different enough from LinkedIn so they simply don't copy the features), in order for you to stay under-the-radar for long enough where you hit a tipping point where, everyone joins your service and you completely take over the market

ssylee• 14 years ago

You forgot talent.me

usablebytes3• 14 years ago

A lot of good advice there; many thanks.

tryitnow• 14 years ago

I'm not going to read any of the other comments before responding because I don't want to bias myself.

Create a LI competitor that can get me a new job and I'll use it. In fact, I'll be willing to pay you thousands and the company that ends up hiring me will pay you thousands.

The value proposition is pretty undeniable. The problem is that I doubt that there is really a technological fix to the problem of inefficient labor markets. It would take more social hacking than machine hacking to facilitate transactions.

Some hints at what will work: 1) Don't focus on employees or employers looking to fill traditional roles. Someone with the "expected" resume will have no problem finding a job and the potential employer will have no trouble finding someone like that. 2) Create a platform so that people can interact face to face in real life. The problem with a lot of tech people is that they're too trusting. Most business types want to interact face to face because "that's the way it's done." Why is it done that way? Because you can't record what people say in face to face contact. 3) Don't work with HR or recruiters. They usually don't possess the domain knowledge to think creatively about new endeavors.

Message me if you want to discuss further. I won't invest (at least probably not), but I will be your first customer.

markhall• 14 years ago

Great thoughts! I had a couple similar thoughts but think it's more complicated to execute. To continue this discussion offline, what's the best way to contact you?

Ask HN: Can a new LinkedIn competitor survive? If yes, what strategies can help?

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