Inside LinkedIn: the Rise of the Normcore Social Network
How the professional platform became a site that millions of people check every day — even when they’re not looking for a job
Like most people, Goldie Chan turned to LinkedIn because she was out of work.
It was the end of 2017, and after years of working in digital marketing, she was taking a one-month sabbatical before she figured out what to do next. Scrolling through her LinkedIn feed, which at the time was mostly filled with job updates and the occasional news link, she saw a video icon next to the share box. LinkedIn was starting to experiment with native video content, and she had been invited to join the private beta.
Chan thought creating videos for the burgeoning video platform might be a good way to pass the time before she found her next job. “That way, it’d look less like I had a gap from being gainfully employed,” she says. The next day, Chan made her way to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Los Angeles to shoot her first video. Little did she know, LinkedIn Video was about to change her life.
LinkedIn’s audience has grown over 60% and its revenue has nearly doubled, to over $7 billion.
