![]() |
|
Type | Aktiengesellschaft |
---|---|
Traded as | FWB: O1BC |
Founded | August 2003 Hamburg, Germany |
Headquarters | Hamburg, Germany |
Key people | Dr. Thomas Vollmoeller (CEO), Stefan Winners (Chairman of the supervisory board) |
Revenue | €54.3 million (2010)[1] |
Operating income | €11.5 million (2010)[1] |
Profit | €7.2 million (2010)[1] |
Total assets | €95.6 million (end 2010)[1] |
Total equity | €61.2 million (end 2010)[1] |
Employees | 649 (2014)[2] |
Website | www |
Alexa rank | ![]() |
Type of site | Professional network service |
Registration | Required |
Available in | Simplified Chinese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
Launched | November 2003 |
XING (named openBC/Open Business Club until 17 November 2006) is a career-oriented social networking site[4] for enabling a small-world network for professionals. The company claims that it is used by people from over 200 countries. Available interface languages include Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish and Turkish. By displaying how each member is connected to any other member, it visualizes the small-world phenomenon.
The platform offers personal profiles, groups, discussion forums, event coordination, and other common social community features. Basic membership is free. But many core functions, like searching for people with specific qualifications or messaging people to whom one is not already connected, can only be accessed by the premium members. Premium membership comes at a monthly fee from 6.35 to 9.95 € depending on the billing interval you choose and the country you are from.[5] The platform uses https and has a rigid privacy and no-spam policy. XING provides its paying members very easy email access to any members.
XING has a special Ambassador program for each city or region around the world with a substantial constituency. The Ambassadors hold local events that promote the use of social networking as a business tool, letting members introduce business ideas to one another, and get to know each other on a personal level.
XING competes with the American platform LinkedIn and the European Viadeo[6] for social networking among businesses.[7]
XING also offers the system for closed communities, called Enterprise groups with their own access paths and interface designs. The platform serves as the infrastructure for corporate groups, including IBM, McKinsey, Accenture and others.[8]
About 76% of all pageviews come from Germany, 90% from the D-A-CH area, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.[9]
Contents
History
- OPEN Business Club AG was founded in August 2003 in Hamburg, Germany as a German limited liability company by Lars Hinrichs.[10] The platform was officially launched on 1 November 2003.[11] It was renamed from OpenBC to XING on 17 November 2006.
- It gained much attention in German media and is widely used as a business network in German-speaking countries (DACH Region). Membership from other countries throughout Europe and the Far East helped the network platform grow to more than 1.5 million members in July 2006.[12]
- In March 2007, XING purchased the Spanish social networking business eConozco, intending to merge its members into XING over the following 12 months.[13]
- In June 2007, XING purchased the Spanish social networking business Neurona.[14] Neurona users were migrated to XING on 31 March 2008.
- In January 2008, XING purchased the Turkish social networking business Cember.[15] Cember.net users were migrated to XING on 26 July 2008.
- In December 2010, it was announced that XING would purchase the Munich ticketing and event organization company amiando for €10.35 million, effective from 1st January 2011.[16]
- In October 2012 the German publisher Burda offered a price of €44 per share for a squeeze out.[17]
IPO
The company went public (IPO) on 7 December 2006 with an issue price of 30 Euros. The Open Business Club Stock Ticker symbol is O1BC.DE and its ISIN number is: DE000XNG8888. XING became the first Web 2.0 company to go public in Europe.[18]
XING Mobile
Xing.com Mobile allows users to access some of its functions using a mobile phone, PDA or smartphone. Standards supported: HTML 3.2, XHTML MP 1.0, WML 1.1.
XING plug-ins
Xing.com plugins are available for free download that allow contact synchronization with Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook,[19] Windows Address Book and Outlook Express. It also allows manual CSV File import–export and has a Firefox search plug-in.
Criticism
The companies official demeanour regarding name changes is problematic. If the circumstances leading to the change are not one of the most common, additional proof is demanded. These unusual cases are easily spotted by Xing, due to dedicated fields for data entry being present in case of marriage (maiden name) and academic titles. In case of transsexuals however, given names and gender will not be changed, unless medical expert evidence or court documents are provided, which offer proof of an assured medical diagnosis or file reference to a court ruling in regard to a name change case, respectively.[20][21] This behaviour is a deep invasion of privacy, because the demanded documents are highly personal, typically detailing the most intimate spheres of life, behaviour and thought. If the changes are carried out, birth names are removed, which is legally required, because any disclosure or investigation would be illegal under the purview of German law, as per Sec. 5 para. 1 and Sec. 10 para. 2 Transsexual Act.[20][21]
See also
BoardEx
- Meettheboss
- Professional network
- Social software
- Social networking
- List of social networking websites
References
- ^ a b c d e "Annual Report 2010" (PDF). XING. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
- ^ "Annual Report 2014" (PDF). XING. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
- ^ "Xing.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-11-15.
- ^ Buettner, Ricardo (2016). Getting a Job via Career-oriented Social Networking Sites: The Weakness of Ties. 49th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Kauai, Hawaii: IEEE. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3249.2241.
- ^ Premium Account Upgrade, 18 March 2014
- ^ The Economist Does local beat global in the professional-networking business?
- ^ Move Over Silicon Valley, Here Come European Start-Ups By John Markoff, 24 January 2007, The New York Times, USA
- ^ LinkedIn takes on Xing, or the other way around! by Carsten Cumbrowski, 29 January 2007, SearchEngineJournal.com
- ^ http://linkedinsiders.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/linkedin-the-next-big-xing-businessnetzwerke-in-deutschland-2012/
- ^ Lars Hinrichs on Twitter.com
- ^ Xing.com Q&A Question 2. When was the company founded?
- ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2006-07-12 (German)
- ^ Xing buys Spanish business social network 27 March 2007, e-Consultancy.com
- ^ Neurona Joins XING 22 June 2007, Xing.com
- ^ Cember.net Joins XING 23 January 2008, Xing.com
- ^ Wauters, Robin. "European M&A News: XING Buys Amiando For Up To €10.3 Million". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
- ^ http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/10/26/us-burda-xing-idINBRE89P08S20121026
- ^ Web 2.0 company Xing raises €35.7 million in IPO by Graham Charlton, 12. Dec 2006, e-Consultancy.com
- ^ Tutorial: Connecting Social Networks with Outlook (German)
- ^ a b Stock response of „Team Quality and Security“ of Xing AG to affected persons
- ^ a b Stock response of Head of Customer Service of Xing AG to affected persons
External links
|
|