Business Social Networking- Active and Inactive Users - Xing, LinkedIn and Viadeo

Business social networking site Xing posted some impressive user growth figures; by the beginning of September Xing’s membership reached 4m, helped by its acquisition earlier this year of two Spanish networks.

With the acquisitions of Spanish social networks eConozco and Neurona, Xing said it had managed to further boost its membership. Both networks have continued to add users, with eConozco doubling its membership since the acquisition.

The company said the membership growth could also be attributed to an increase in the number of email invitations sent out by existing Xing users.

According to a recent survey (PDF) by the social network, 87% of respondents have recommended the network to friends and colleagues.

Viadeo, another ‘professional network’ surpassed the 1.6m mark this September and recently received a cash injection of £3.4m from existing investors - AGF Private Equity and Ventech. Viadeo have expanded into Europe and across Asia by forming a strategic partnership with Tianji. Together new members are joining these sites collectively at a rate of 140,000 per month.

LinkedIn, arguably the biggest 'professional network', surpassed the 10m mark earlier this year. New members are joining LinkedIn at a rate of 130,000 per week.

These companies face the tough question of…What proportion of users are currently active?
For example, of LinkedIn’s 10m users – How many of them have:

• Abandoned their social network – due to lack of suitable contacts, being bombarded with too many requests or had too few invitations thus leaving a ‘dormant profile’ on the network
• Provided ‘work’, ‘Hotmail’, or ‘Yahoo’ email addresses which often expire due to inactivity or a change of job, thus making notification and contact impossible?

Users are frustrated when after paying a subscription fee, they find that their exisiting contacts and newly requested contacts have abandoned the social network site, thus effectively contacting dead links.

Webjam....in the spotlight

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