As is customary between Christmas and New Year, things are fairly quiet here at Gaensemarkt in Hamburg. The public holidays are now behind us so it’s time to start looking forward to 2012. But before we do, I’d like to look back at what’s happened here at XING over the past twelve months.
I think I’d be going overboard if I tried to go into detail about all of the new features such as the lunch planner and MINI job ad we introduced in 2011, so I’ll stick to the highlights from our product strategy and the points I think are most interesting to you.
In June 2011 we overhauled our site by introducing a completely new layout that includes new interactions focusing primarily on network activity. Not only that, we also introduced the option to “like”, comment on, share and recommend content.
Just over a year ago we acquired amiando, a Munich-based company, in order to expand and simplify our activities in the events and ticketing segment. I’m very happy about the ongoing development of our PLUS events and the fact that amiando turned over more than ten million euros by the end of the third quarter.
In terms of innovation here at XING, we recently launched our Beta Labs – a platform hosting beta-stage projects that are developed at high speed and of interest to XING users who’d like to test drive them before they go mainstream. And let’s not forget that our API will be released in 2012.
No XING review would be complete without mentioning an increasingly important segment – mobile. This year we pulled out all the stops as our colleagues at Zühlke Engineering provided us with a Windows Phone 7 app, our mobile web app now offers access to group posts, and the Android and iPhone apps have also been improved in terms of functionality and usability. And we’ve got a whole lot more of this in store for you in 2012!
To round things off, our headcount has also changed considerably as we hired 100 new employees in 2011, meaning that we now have a total staff of 450. But we’re not done yet – so take a look at our current vacancies to see if there’s anything you’d like to get involved with so you can play a part in XING’s success!
I’m really happy about all of the new features now available on XING. But that’s no reason for us to rest on our laurels, and that applies to membership growth, too. With more than 5 million members in German-speaking countries, we have an excellent foundation that we can build on in the future. Nevertheless, I’d still like to see more people discover the benefits of professional networking on XING. As you can see, we’ve got a lot in store for 2012.
I wish you and your families a Happy New Year and all the best for 2012.
Sincerely,
Stefan Gross-Selbeck.
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