LinkedIn is Going Public

In what will probably be a bunch of social networking sites going public over the next couple of years, LinkedIn has filed for an initial public offering as reported by the WSJ.

What’s fascinating about this development is that we get to see their business model – profit, loss and future plans. Essentially learn how profitable social networking can be.

Here’s what we know so far about LinkedIn:

  • Over 90 million registered users (roughly 15 million uniques/month)
  • Revenue of $161 million in the 9 months ended Sept. 2010
  • Net income of $1.85 million

What the real information tells us is that LinkedIn only became profitable in 2010 (it was founded in 2003). And it derives revenue from three sources: advertising, premium subscriptions and hiring solutions for HR.

It’s tiny compared to Facebook but it does shed some light on revenue models for online social networking sites.

Will you invest? What are your thoughts on this…