LinkedIn has carved out a nice niche for itself, but the social network for professionals is in danger of being snuffed out by the granddaddy of all social networks: Facebook.
LinkedIn users spent an average of 13 minutes on the website in October, compared to 213 minutes for the average Facebook user, The Wall Street Journal reports. Even worse is the fact that some people simply don't care about separating their professional and personal lives and eschew LinkedIn to join industry-related groups on Facebook.
To combat this and attract more users, LinkedIn is borrowing heavily from Facebook and opening its site to third-party developers in hopes of creating applications that will attract more visitors. The network sees the apps being professionally minded, meaning we might see applications designed specifically for lawyers to highlight their case histories.
The network also recently partnered with Twitter, letting members link their Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.
Overall, LinkedIn has a steep mountain to climb if it wants to catch Facebook. Its 53.6 million users are only a fraction of Facebook's 350 million, but the company doesn't seem to care. LinkedIn is turning a profit through advertising and still has close to $100 million raised in venture capital, according to the Journal.
