LinkedIn’s Startup Story

“Active participation on LinkedIn is the best way to say, ‘Look at me!’ without saying ‘Look at me!”
― Bobby Darnell

It is a de facto professional networking platform that is connecting the business world around the globe. The intelligent brain behind this idea is Reid Hoffman, a Stanford graduate. In fact, at the start, the financiers of the business did not trust Reid and asked him to secure a job first to get some firsthand experience for a business idea like this to work out. Who knew it’d work this well? Not even Reid himself knew this back then.

Reid Hoffman launched it in 2003. LinkedIn is one of the social media that are even older than Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., and is reaping the fruits of success to date.

Some statistics about LinkedIn that you do not need to overlook are;

• There are 660 million LinkedIn users and 310 million monthly active users.
• LinkedIn gains a new member every 2 seconds.
• 39% of LinkedIn users pay for premium account privileges.
• When making purchase decisions, 50% of B2B buyers use LinkedIn.
• 92% of B2B marketers prefer LinkedIn to other social networks.
• Every single Fortune 500 company has representatives on LinkedIn.
• The best time to post on LinkedIn is between Tuesday 8 a.m. and Thursday 4 p.m.

Features of LinkedIn

The key features of the LinkedIn application are as follows;

Basic Features of LinkedIn

The basic features which form the backbone of the app are as follows;

Registration

The core of the business networking application is the registration. After registration, the users would be able to use the app. Users can register themselves using the Google, Facebook and phone number. There are two roles, out of which the user has to select from i.e. jobs keeper or a business person.

Profile Setup

After registration, the users can setup their profile by adding their personalized information. The cadres like address, qualification, employment history, profile photo and experience are to be filled by the employee.

Search bar

Using the search bar, the employers can search the employees and vice versa. Using the keywords, skill set, location and name, the search is commenced. It is an open source application so, the search results and search engine are very good. In order to sue the search through the location, the user should have the GPS setting enabled in his device.

News feed

Ever seen a networking or social media without the news feed? It is a thumb rule to include the newsfeed as it substantially increases the user engagement. The users get to see and hear about the business activities of their interest around the globe.

The news feed is different for everyone. The news feed consists of videos, images, informational articles, latest research, and the latest business reports etc. Usually, the users select the option “Follow Feed” for their newsfeed.

Push-Up Notification

The users get notified of every important advancement in their profile or the outside activity related to them through his prestigious feature “Push-up Notification”. LinkedIn uses the air traffic controller to notify the users.

Live Chat

The best thing about the live chat feature of the LinkedIn is that it eradicates third parties in the live chat. The real time chat between the two parties is encrypted through the security keys and algorithms so that it remains completely private. The users can even discuss the confidential information on this live chat as it is completely secure.

Monetary Method

The monetary methods used by LinkedIn are talent solutions, marketing solutions, and premium subscriptions.

Talent Solutions

LinkedIn drives 65% of its revenue from talents solutions which include recruiting tools, LinkedIn recruiters, job slots, and career pages, etc.

Marketing Solutions

The marketing solutions are the display ads, ads API, LinkedIn ads, and sponsored emails, etc. LinkedIn earns 18% of its revenue by this method of monetization.

Premium Subscriptions

The application charges for its premium features. The users subscribe to the premium features, after which they are able to use features like premium career, business plus, sales navigator, and recruiter lite.

Advanced Features of LinkedIn

The advanced features of LinkedIn which do not form the basic infrastructure of the functionality of the app, but are worth-mentioning are;

• Hide/ Export the Connections
• Manage your skills and Endorsements
• Create LinkedIn Showcase Pages
• Hide Identity While Viewing Profiles
• Save Your Searches
• Add Media Files to Your Profile
• Send A Message Without Connection
• Maintain a LinkedIn Relationship Note
• Advanced Search Option

How Much It Costs to Build App like LinkedIn

Authorization: Users can get authorized with an email address, phone number, and Facebook. This step includes integration of more complex features like password recovery, password reset, 2 factor authentication, and sign out. It can be done by using a database at the back-end; it stores usernames, passwords and other details from which data can be fetched upon the need. It would require 60-80 hours to develop these factors.

Features	Mobile Development	Back-end Development
Phone number authorization	10 hours	6-8 hours
Email authorization	10 hours	6-8 hours
Social media sign in/ sign out	8 hours	6-8 hours
Sign in/Sign out	8 hours	6-8 hours

Profile Setup: The user can create a unique user name, and password, also set a profile pic, and business profiles can also be set up using this feature. It requires to develop interaction between client and server-side of the application which can take somewhere between 55-80 hours

Features	Mobile Development	Backend Development
User Profile	16-20 hours	15-20 hours
Add or Modify Personal Data	20 hours	35 hours

Geolocation Determination: Using Google maps app can determine the location of user, or it can also be updated manually. For automatic update, the developer would need to integrate APIs in the app. The data is sent by a sensor to the front-end, from where it goes to the backend. The server shows the images of the map based on the data sent by front-end. It needs 25-40 hours for developing such a feature depending upon the set of expertise of the developer.

Features	Mobile Development	Back-end Development
Integrating post with world-map	15 hours	10 hours
Location of Photo	15 hours	10 hours

Search: Users can search other users by typing their unique username and the database at the backend will provide with the desired information.

Mentions: Users can mention each other in posts or comments section.

It can take up to 60-80 hours in combined development of these two features;

Features	Mobile Development	Back-end Development
Enable hashtag working	15 hours	10 hours
Prepare activity log of user	10 hours	10 hours
Search data per various parameters	15 hours	20 hours

Direct Message: Enables the user to send other users photos and messages in private. This feature is a complete social media app on its own. It should notify the messages on real-time. Developers can use the API on HTTP as a replacement of permanent socket connections. By using GCM or APN, developer can link the app with android or IOS server. This can take up to 120-150hours.

Features	Mobile Development	Back-end Development
Push in notifications	15 hours	20 hours
Sending and receiving videos and images	15 hours	20 hours
Message transfer in real time	30 hours	40 hours

Settings: Users can delete, deactivate their own account and block others under this section. It can take up to 80 hours for developing these features.

Features	Mobile Development	Back-end Development
Account privacy	5 hours	10 hours
Language selection	20 hours	Depends upon the syntax and semantics of different languages like Arabic, Urdu, Hebrew, English, and Spanish, etc.
Push Notifications	10 hours	10 hours

Technology Stack of LinkedIn

The front-end development needs following technologies;

Front-End Development	Technology Needed
IOS Application	Swift Programming language
Admin Panel	HTML/ CSS/ AngularJS

 

The back-end development needs following technologies;

Back-end Development	Technology Needed
Programming language	Ruby-on-Rails Framework
Database	Postgre SQL Database
Web server	Nginx
Cloud Platforms	Amazon Web Services (AWS, EC2, S3, etc.)

 

The integration of the project require following technologies;

Integrations

Google Maps API

Facebook SDK

LinkedIn API

Also Read: Quora Like Platform Development Cost

Best LinkedIn like App Development Approach

 

Step1 – Requirement Gathering

This step includes gathering the requirements you want your app to deliver to you. Deeply analyze the idea and how these ideas can be translated into functionalities. Check the feasibility of these ideas getting translating into features or functionalities. Now, prepare the project plan optimization.

STEP 2 – UX and Wirefarming

The secret ingredient in the perfect recipe of LinkedIn is the smooth and seamless experience which comes from the smooth UI and UX design. It includes two phases 1) UX Modeling 2) HLD & Documentation. The phases in this step include preparation of the flowcharts and sketches of the user needs and functionalities. Prepare the information architecture design. Prepare the use case scenarios.

STEP 3 – UI Design

Third step is to build the User Interface design. The UX/ UI team needs to determine the UI strategy first of all. This strategy includes building a strategy that should facilitate the user interface experience. Incorporate art direction, storyboarding, and moldboard creation in making the full UI design.

STEP 4- Agile Development

Nowadays, agile development is preferred. This is a quick and team based software development. Project Manager and technical lead should create milestone, plan the sprint, conduct scrum meetings, and show the sprint demos to make the development really quick and impeccable.

STEP 5- Testing and Launching

The test codes and user test scenarios are written down by the quality and assurance team and the testers perform automated or manual testing to check the functionality of the app. The bugs are removed by the developers after which the product is launched.

Usually, minimum viable product with least features is developed and released. This is called beta-version.  After the bugs are reported, the app is updated accordingly.

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