Newsweek - National News, World News, Health, Technology, Entertainment and more... | Newsweek.com

Why It Matters

RSS
SPONSORED BY

Authors

 Michael Freedman

Daniel Gross

Stefan Theil

Categories




Links

Featured Postings

One Countercyclical Business

1:33 PM, January 29, 2009 | Comments (0)
Spend a day or two here, and it seems that every business, in every sector, in every geographic area, is suffering. There seem to be no safe havens, and few truly countercyclical industries this time around. But I think I may have found one: white-collar...

Wall Street Bigshots: Conspicuous By Their Absence

7:59 PM, January 28, 2009 | Comments (0)

Depression Era Thrift Is Back In Style

5:06 PM, January 26, 2009 | Comments (0)

Archives

See All from January
Previous
January 2009
Next
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
       

ISSUES 2009: How to Fix the World

 

Full Post
Posted Thursday, January 29, 2009 2:33 PM

One Countercyclical Business

Daniel Gross
Spend a day or two here, and it seems that every business, in every sector, in every geographic area, is suffering. There seem to be no safe havens, and few truly countercyclical industries this time around. But I think I may have found one: white-collar networking. Reid Hoffman, the CEO of LinkedIn, says that the site, essentially a networking site for yuppies, is expanding rapidly. It has 34 million members, and is adding one million every 17 days. Advertising is holding up. Hoffman expects revenues and employment to rise in 2009, and expects the company to be profitable. “Networking is cycle resistant,” Hoffman said. “In an environment with lots of jobs and few free employees, people feel a need for LinkedIn and the access it offers. And in a market with lots of employers and few jobs, members feel like they need it.” Membership growth, in other words, is tied in part to white-collar job anxiety. “It was interesting to see all the people from Lehman Brothers join” after the company went bankrupt in September, Hoffman said.
Advertisement
Tag(s):
You must be a registered user to comment.  Click here to register.  Already a user?  Click here to login.

Member Comments

No Comments