Online business networks are professional networking sites for business people who can create a comprehensive profile in order to promote themselves online. The purpose of the network is to stay in contact with business partners as well as to establish new connections with experienced professionals. The required criteria for this business model definition include the possibility to search people and business opportunities as well as to view a list of second-degree connections (i.e. one’s contacts’ contacts). Web pages with a special focus on job portal services are excluded from the definition.
| Rank | Company Name | Founders | Online Since | Country | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Ecademy |
Thomas und Penny Power, G. Watkins | 1999-03-15 |
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| 2 |
Poolweb |
ISTUD Istituto Study Direzionali | 2000-04-01 |
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| 3 |
Community.Management |
Olexandr Savruk | 2001-03-01 |
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| 4 |
Ryze.com |
Adrian Scott | 2001-07-22 |
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| 5 |
networkingforprofessionals.com |
Amanda Nissman (co-founder) | 2002-03-04 |
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| 6 |
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Reid Hoffman | 2002-11-02 |
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| 7 |
linkedin.com |
Reid Hoffman | 2002-11-22 |
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| 8 |
spoke.com |
2003-03-22 |
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| 9 |
neurona.com |
Ferran Aznar | 2003-06-01 |
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| 10 |
Fastpitchnetworking |
Bill Jula | 2003-07-22 |
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| 11 |
openbc.com |
Lars Hinrichs | 2003-08-01 |
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| 12 |
xing.com |
Lars Hinrichs | 2003-11-01 |
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| 13 |
econozco.com |
Grupo Galenicom TI, S.L. | 2003-12-01 |
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| 14 |
piwie.biz |
Frédéric Bousiot-Poulain; Christophe Caille | 2004-06-01 |
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| 15 |
6nergies.net |
Alain Lefebvre | 2004-06-10 |
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| 16 |
Soflow |
Robert Loch, Paul Birch, Oli Barrett and Andy Bourland | 2004-07-20 |
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| 17 |
doostang.com |
Mareza Larizadeh and Pavel Krapivin | 2004-09-23 |
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| 18 |
performerscircle.com |
Norbert Wangnick; Stefan Renzewitz | 2004-09-27 |
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| 19 |
connexions.rediff.com |
Ajit Balakrishnan | 2004-10-23 |
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| 20 |
Executivebase.com |
Laurenz Metzinger | 2004-11-04 |
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| 21 |
theweps.com |
Hans Bayartz | 2004-11-14 |
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| 22 |
Foretagande |
Mikael Karlsson, Marta Karlsson, Patrik Nilsson | 2005-01-19 |
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| 23 |
Cember |
Caglar Erol | 2005-01-28 |
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| 24 |
socialbc.com |
Alexander Dort | 2005-09-06 |
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| 25 |
biznik.com |
Dan McComb and Lara Eve Feltin | 2005-11-01 |
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| 26 |
Biznik |
Dan McComb, Lara Eve Feltin | 2005-11-15 |
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| 27 |
Successbc |
Markus Roemmen | 2005-11-17 |
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| 28 |
Moikrug |
Ilya Shirokov | 2005-12-01 |
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| 29 |
Atlaskit |
Alexey Belov | 2006-03-22 |
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| 30 |
Biznes |
2006-04-09 |
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| 31 |
viadeo.com/fr/connexion |
Eric Didier | 2006-08-19 |
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| 32 |
Vkontakte |
Pavel and Nikolai Durov | 2006-11-08 |
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| 33 |
CafeTheMarker |
2007-02-01 |
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| 34 |
Hook |
2007-03-01 |
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| 35 |
referralkey.com |
Lewis A. Weinstein | 2007-08-01 |
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