LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented social networking service owned by Microsoft. Members create professional profiles, list their work history, connect with other members, write articles and post job listings. Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly launched it on May 5, 2003.
History of LinkedIn
Creator: Reid Hoffman, Eric Ly and a founding team from PayPal and Socialnet.com. Year: 2002.
LinkedIn was founded in December 2002 by Reid Hoffman. The team included members from PayPal and Socialnet.com. The LinkedIn about page states that the service began in Hoffman's living room in 2002. It was launched on May 5, 2003. Hoffman and Eric Ly launched it.
The company received venture capital from several firms. One was Sequoia Capital. Users could invite other people to become connections. Those people did not have to be members. In 2007 the platform had 10 million users. That led the company to open offices in India, Australia and Ireland.
From 2015 most of the company's revenue came from selling access to member information. The buyers were recruiters and sales professionals. LinkedIn also launched LinkedIn Ads. It is an advertising portal. It lets companies advertise on the platform.
In June 2016 Microsoft announced that it would acquire LinkedIn. The price was $196 a share. The total value was $26.2 billion. Microsoft purchased LinkedIn in December 2016. It was the largest acquisition that Microsoft had made at that time.
LinkedIn has faced criticism over its security. In 2012 the password hashes of about 6.4 million users were stolen. They were published online. In 2016, 117 million LinkedIn usernames and passwords were offered for sale online. The sellers most likely got them from the 2012 theft.
Changelog and latest update
LinkedIn had more than 1.3 billion registered members in early 2026. The service is available in more than 200 countries and territories. Members can create and join groups. They can write articles. They can post photos and videos.
In October 2010 the Silicon Valley Insider Top 100 list ranked LinkedIn No. 10.2 The list ranked it among the most valuable startups. Microsoft has owned LinkedIn since its purchase in December 2016.
The service has been criticized for its endorsement feature. It has also been criticized for the use of member e-mail accounts to send spam. 94%3 of business-to-business marketers used LinkedIn. They used it to distribute content from 2017 onward.
The LinkedIn API lets approved apps read data. It lets them perform actions with a member's permission. The API uses OAuth 2.0 access tokens. An app requests the token from the member during sign-in.
Latest update: LinkedIn 2026 Grad's Guide, 2026-10-01
The LinkedIn Corporate Communications team published the 2026 Grad's Guide on October 1, 2026. The post on the LinkedIn news site describes where job opportunities are growing for recent graduates. It is the newest dated item on that site. That was true when this entry was checked.
Usage examples
A website can link to a LinkedIn profile or company page. It can offer a share button. It can call the LinkedIn application programming interface (API) with an approved app. The examples show a share link, a profile link and an API request. Each one needs a valid LinkedIn address or a valid access token before it works.
const s = "https://www.linkedin.com/"
+ "sharing/share-offsite/?url="
+ encodeURIComponent(location.href);This code builds a LinkedIn share address for the current page. The share-offsite path opens the LinkedIn sharing window. The url parameter carries the page address. The encodeURIComponent function makes the address safe for a web link.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/
company/example-company/"
rel="noopener">Our LinkedIn page</a>This link sends a visitor to a company page on LinkedIn. The company part of the path names the page. The example-company slug must match the page address on LinkedIn. The rel value noopener keeps the new window from controlling the original page.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
https://api.linkedin.com/v2/userinfoThis command asks the LinkedIn API for the profile details. It returns the profile of the member who owns the access token. The token is a value that an approved app receives after OAuth sign-in. The shell variable TOKEN must hold that value before the command runs.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
LinkedIn
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia entry on the professional network. It covers the 2002 founding, the 2003 launch, the venture funding, the revenue model, the Microsoft purchase in 2016, the security incidents and the membership figures, with a list of sources for each claim. The article lists its sources at the end.
About LinkedIn
LinkedIn
The company page with the mission, the vision and the history of the service. It states the membership count, the country count and the founding account in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman, which this entry uses. The page is maintained by LinkedIn itself.
LinkedIn Pressroom
LinkedIn
The official news site from LinkedIn Corporate Communications. The site is run by the company's communications team. Each post on the page carries a date. The October 1, 2026 Grad's Guide post used for the latest update is listed there.
LinkedIn Help
LinkedIn
The official help center for members and page owners. It explains profiles, connections, privacy settings and reporting tools, for members and page owners, which are the account features that a visitor meets from a shared link. Each help article has a title that names the task.
Check the link on your LinkedIn page first
The first thing we check is the website link on your LinkedIn company page. That link should open a live page with your business name, your services and a phone number. If it leads to an old page or an error screen, buyers who check your profile leave without calling. We fix the link, and then we check every page it opens.
Buyers on LinkedIn often look over a company before they reply to it. Our pages say who you are, what you do and how to reach you. Each page gets a clear title and one main heading. Each contact form is tested before launch, so a message from a buyer reaches your inbox.
Our domain price is $24.99. WordPress hosting is $149 a year, and the two together make our standard starting bundle. Local search care is $190 a month, and it keeps your pages current after launch. Our servers keep 99.999% uptime, so the link stays open when a buyer clicks it.
Send your LinkedIn page address and we will test its link for you. Reach us at 402-813-4034 any day from 7 am to 10 pm.
