Live data from Hacker News

LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

businessinsider.com

201–210 of 663 posts

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#202
post #43
post #14

Honestly I am feeling a bit of joy watching LinkedIn take a hit. Not because I think their product is terrible but because of the endless spam emails I keep receiving from them, despite how many times I click unsubscribe.

Or how about the phony "people you may know". They suggested I may know my 4 year old Niece because somebody uploaded the email address created for her into their system. She definitely doesn't have a LinkedIn account, but they portray a profile-photoless "shadow profile" as-if she does.

If you read the button it's not an CTA to connect with her but a CTA to invite her to LinkedIn. She would then get an email basically saying "Uncle Uptown would like you to join LinkedIn!"

Agree it's scummy and they are mixed in with actual folks on LinkedIn but they are not creating shadow profiles.

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#203

Sounds like the bubble is bursting. The established companies whose valuation was based on multiples of future growth are taking the hit, getting in line with more traditional multiples of current revenue.

https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=bubble

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#204
post #14

Honestly I am feeling a bit of joy watching LinkedIn take a hit. Not because I think their product is terrible but because of the endless spam emails I keep receiving from them, despite how many times I click unsubscribe.

This worked of me: http://lifehacker.com/unsubscribe-from-all-linkedin-emails-w... Not sure if this is still valid.

If is. There are very granular controls to control which emails you get and then, separately, how often, including "No emails". Looks like I did all that a year or so ago, since I only get a message now and then for new connect request. Now those are random strangers maybe 30% of the time, but I do want the notifications.

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#205
I miss the old days of LinkedIn, when they had a Stack Overflow-esque Q&A subsite, Groups were at the forefront of your feed, and it was the ideal forum to hold discussions with like-minded professionals (i.e. other developers).

Today it seems like it's an endless stream of garbage posts, many from recruiters (why did I connect with so many?), Groups is now relegated to the background, buried away. Every few months they roll out an updated UI that seems less intuitive. It all feels like a cheap imitation of Facebook, underwhelming and having little value.

(P.S. Someone asked if they ever found a job on LI, I did, not from a recruiter but a developer colleague. so there's still value there.)

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My speculation is that without any comparable competitors, there's nothing to force LinkedIn to change the negative aspects of their service. If there were two competing services, we would see users gravitating towards the service they prefer and the other service desperately trying to correct itself. For example, when Yahoo introduced suggested searches, Google noticed and picked up the feature too. Alternatively, w…

The reason a LinkedIn competitor hasn't emerged is the same reason a viable Facebook competitor hasn't emerged: at this point the network effects are too strong, and it's extremely difficult to beat incumbents because of that. Besides, think about how much flak some HN submissions get for being "just another social network." I think the whole social network market has fully saturated and there will be additional diff…

> The reason a LinkedIn competitor hasn't emerged is the same reason a viable Facebook competitor hasn't emerged: at this point the network effects are too strong, and it's extremely difficult to beat incumbents because of that.

I'd say LinkedIn actually has stronger network effects than Facebook, or other consumer social networks. Consumer social networks are used more casually, so it's easier to get users to sign up than it would be for a professional social network, where users tend to adopt a more conservative mindset. And we've seen several consumer social networks rise in the post-Facebook era - Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#207
post #14

Honestly I am feeling a bit of joy watching LinkedIn take a hit. Not because I think their product is terrible but because of the endless spam emails I keep receiving from them, despite how many times I click unsubscribe.

The emails are bad, but I also think their product is terrible.

This is true. The newsfeed has turned into meme and inspirational quote sharing. I am unfollowing individual people now (just like FB, yay!)

It really is a poor product for what it looked like it might become.

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#210
LinkedIn posts suck, just now I see somebody posted about a job that a friend of mine could be interested in, I see no way to forward that or copy the link, went to the poster's profile to see if it's there and I can send his profile's link (not there), upon coming back the post doesn't show up anymore, Linkedin deletes posts from view "randomly" (other posts are still there).
Post reply on HN