Comments on: Linkedin taking the traditional approach in Germany and why that will fail (as usual) http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493 Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:28:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Pam http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-5387 Pam Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:11:06 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-5387 Wondering who will fail and who will succeed in the market place in 2009 - is it Twitter, LinkIn or Facebook? I am overwhelmed with a lot of 'yes' and 'no' answer for all these three. Wondering who will fail and who will succeed in the market place in 2009 – is it Twitter, LinkIn or Facebook? I am overwhelmed with a lot of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answer for all these three.

]]> By: Mark T http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-982 Mark T Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:26:40 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-982 Thank you for your writeup. I would like to point parts of your article where I strongly disagree. Your comment "Of course in the general world wide market Xing looses out to Linkedin" could be a serious problem for Xing. The world is small already, why would I choose a network that is mostly limited to the DACH market? I work in Germany, but have extensive contacts in Scandinavia, UK, and Benelux. I dont have a single contact abroad who is using or has considered using Xing. Everyone is on Linkedin. In fact, several IT newspaper publications in Benelux print the number of Linkedin contacts each person named in an article has. You wrote "Germany has 82 million people living there, with over 60% of the grownups being online on a regular basis and it just ticks different to what you might used to be." Yes, it ticks different, but with young Germans, B-school Germans, and hundreds of thousands of Germans living abroad (especially at muti-national firms), the game in the local market is really not all that different. Most of these individuals realize that they will need to do a rotation in another part of the world to climb up the corporate ladder. Meaning that international connections are critical to getting that position in Shanghai, etc. About 90% of my German colleagues are using the two account system with both Xing and Linkedin. Why are they using Linkedin - same reasons, for the international contacts. While im happy that there is some competition left in the marketplace, I dont see how Xing will be able to grow furthur in the 2-3 year range being limited to mostly the German speaking regions of Europe. Just my personal observations... Thank you for your writeup.

I would like to point parts of your article where I strongly disagree.

Your comment “Of course in the general world wide market Xing looses out to Linkedin” could be a serious problem for Xing. The world is small already, why would I choose a network that is mostly limited to the DACH market? I work in Germany, but have extensive contacts in Scandinavia, UK, and Benelux. I dont have a single contact abroad who is using or has considered using Xing. Everyone is on Linkedin. In fact, several IT newspaper publications in Benelux print the number of Linkedin contacts each person named in an article has.

You wrote “Germany has 82 million people living there, with over 60% of the grownups being online on a regular basis and it just ticks different to what you might used to be.” Yes, it ticks different, but with young Germans, B-school Germans, and hundreds of thousands of Germans living abroad (especially at muti-national firms), the game in the local market is really not all that different. Most of these individuals realize that they will need to do a rotation in another part of the world to climb up the corporate ladder. Meaning that international connections are critical to getting that position in Shanghai, etc.

About 90% of my German colleagues are using the two account system with both Xing and Linkedin. Why are they using Linkedin – same reasons, for the international contacts.

While im happy that there is some competition left in the marketplace, I dont see how Xing will be able to grow furthur in the 2-3 year range being limited to mostly the German speaking regions of Europe.

Just my personal observations…

]]> By: Konstantin Guericke http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-789 Konstantin Guericke Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:28:00 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-789 One of the best posts and set of comments I have seen on the topic. LinkedIn has waited long (too long for my taste), and it will take significant effort and patience to win over many segments of German professionals. As some articles have pointed out, LinkedIn will appeal to certain segments and can get critical mass there. Also, many will choose to have two profiles. Third, LinkedIn is not dependent on earning a lot of revenue from the German market, so German professionals are likely to benefit as they have more of a choice and LinkedIn will work hard and patiently to entice German professionals to give LinkedIn a try--both those are already on Xing and those (by far the majority) who have not yet joined any professional network. LinkedIn is designed to be efficient for the busy professional, and this design has already proven to be more attractive than those of local competitors in every country of Europe (and the world) except Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The powerful business model also enabled LinkedIn to be profitable while allowing virtually all members to enjoy most of the valuable search and contact functions free of charge. There are about a dozen significant pieces of functionality in LinkedIn that will take some time to get noticed, but I believe will sooner or later gain in appreciation. Based on its worldwide scale and significant resources (and not having to worry about fickle public-market investors interested in short-term profits), LinkedIn is evolving quickly, and German/Austrian professionals will be the ones that benefit the most (LinkedIn is already quite strong in Switzerland due to the importance of international business in the Swiss economy). Disclosure: these opinions are my personal ones and are not an official statement of LinkedIn. One of the best posts and set of comments I have seen on the topic. LinkedIn has waited long (too long for my taste), and it will take significant effort and patience to win over many segments of German professionals. As some articles have pointed out, LinkedIn will appeal to certain segments and can get critical mass there. Also, many will choose to have two profiles. Third, LinkedIn is not dependent on earning a lot of revenue from the German market, so German professionals are likely to benefit as they have more of a choice and LinkedIn will work hard and patiently to entice German professionals to give LinkedIn a try–both those are already on Xing and those (by far the majority) who have not yet joined any professional network.
LinkedIn is designed to be efficient for the busy professional, and this design has already proven to be more attractive than those of local competitors in every country of Europe (and the world) except Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The powerful business model also enabled LinkedIn to be profitable while allowing virtually all members to enjoy most of the valuable search and contact functions free of charge. There are about a dozen significant pieces of functionality in LinkedIn that will take some time to get noticed, but I believe will sooner or later gain in appreciation.
Based on its worldwide scale and significant resources (and not having to worry about fickle public-market investors interested in short-term profits), LinkedIn is evolving quickly, and German/Austrian professionals will be the ones that benefit the most (LinkedIn is already quite strong in Switzerland due to the importance of international business in the Swiss economy).
Disclosure: these opinions are my personal ones and are not an official statement of LinkedIn.

]]> By: Ted Shelton http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-788 Ted Shelton Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:59:00 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-788 No debate on the points you raised and ALL of the US companies that enter European language markets find it hard to get this right -- lots of opportunities for collaboration or competition... but in something like social networking, especially business social networking, there is an enormous advantage that a global player will have over a local German player. The world is flat! We all need to be thinking about global markets -- LinkedIn needs to be smarter about being localized, but German business people need to be smarter about doing business social networking with everyone around the world, not just folks in Germany. I think that LinkedIn will get localization right faster than Xing will get globalization right. So in the long run LinkedIn will win. In the short run, smart business people will use both. http://www.linkedin.com/in/tshelton http://www.xing.com/profile/Ted_Shelton No debate on the points you raised and ALL of the US companies that enter European language markets find it hard to get this right — lots of opportunities for collaboration or competition… but in something like social networking, especially business social networking, there is an enormous advantage that a global player will have over a local German player. The world is flat! We all need to be thinking about global markets — LinkedIn needs to be smarter about being localized, but German business people need to be smarter about doing business social networking with everyone around the world, not just folks in Germany.

I think that LinkedIn will get localization right faster than Xing will get globalization right. So in the long run LinkedIn will win. In the short run, smart business people will use both.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/tshelton
http://www.xing.com/profile/Ted_Shelton

]]> By: Nicole Simon http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-787 Nicole Simon Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:36:00 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-787 I wanted to include the list of collected links when I update, but still thanks for giving me the link Francisco :) I wanted to include the list of collected links when I update, but still thanks for giving me the link Francisco :)

]]> By: Francisco Otto http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-786 Francisco Otto Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:12:00 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-786 Hey Nicole, der aktuelle Link zu dem Video ist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvu4x5v75_I LG Francisco Hey Nicole,
der aktuelle Link zu dem Video ist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvu4x5v75_I
LG
Francisco

]]> By: Misty Faucheux http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-785 Misty Faucheux Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:22:00 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-785 Hi, Nicole: I think that Linkedin definitely needs to do a little better outreach to overtake Xing. I love how your broke everything down. Thanks for doing all the research. Misty Faucheux Social Media/Community Relations Manager, Viscape.com http://www.viscape.com/users/mistyfau Hi, Nicole:

I think that Linkedin definitely needs to do a little better outreach to overtake Xing. I love how your broke everything down.

Thanks for doing all the research.

Misty Faucheux
Social Media/Community Relations Manager, Viscape.com
http://www.viscape.com/users/mistyfau

]]> By: Bryan Coe http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-784 Bryan Coe Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:07:00 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-784 Nicole, this is a great post. I'm always surprised at how many international companies don't understand the value of localization when attempting to enter a new market. This is another good.. or should I say "bad" example. Your statement sums it up, "Most of the time, they just make a translation and try to tell everybody how awesome they are everywhere else, as if this is enough." BTW I also posted this to my blog. Nicole, this is a great post. I’m always surprised at how many international companies don’t understand the value of localization when attempting to enter a new market. This is another good.. or should I say “bad” example.

Your statement sums it up, “Most of the time, they just make a translation and try to tell everybody how awesome they are everywhere else, as if this is enough.”

BTW I also posted this to my blog.

]]> By: Andraz Tori http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-783 Andraz Tori Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:48:00 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-783 Yeah, I know Xing is no dwarf either. I am sure we can look forward to a few years of exciting battle ! :) bye Andraz Tori, Zemanta Yeah, I know Xing is no dwarf either. I am sure we can look forward to a few years of exciting battle ! :)

bye
Andraz Tori, Zemanta

]]> By: Nicole http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-782 Nicole Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:39:00 +0000 http://crueltobekind.org/linkedin-taking-the-traditional-approach-in-germany-and-why-that-will-fail-as-usual-493#comment-782 @Mark nice article! @Andraz Absolutly. Just that Xing's war chest is not small either. It is not comparable to Linkedin, but the home should be save - if they do not screw up, which is usually the problem. ;) Buying up: There is no one else to buy up in the German market which plays in the same niche as Xing, only StudiVZ but that would be a long shot and I doubt they want to play Facebook. It will stay interesting and if it brings any innovation - I will be happy to see it on both platforms. @Mark nice article!

@Andraz Absolutly. Just that Xing’s war chest is not small either. It is not comparable to Linkedin, but the home should be save – if they do not screw up, which is usually the problem. ;)

Buying up: There is no one else to buy up in the German market which plays in the same niche as Xing, only StudiVZ but that would be a long shot and I doubt they want to play Facebook. It will stay interesting and if it brings any innovation – I will be happy to see it on both platforms.

]]>