The two main business-focused social networking sites, LinkedIn & Xing, have both received additional investment and the signs are that 2007 could be the year these sites really take off.

LinkedIn they've recently closed another $13m Venture round, and Xing completed an over-subscribed IPO last month, valuing them at EUR157m.

But, aside from this investment, the world is finally starting to get that these sites really deliver value. Scott Allen, co-author of The Virtual Handshake, charts many of these stories here.

When I last blogged about LinkedIn back in March 2006, the site had 5 million users. It now has 8.5 million.

Now, LinkedIn had predicted that they would grow to 10 million by 2007, and there has been some talk about the fact that they have missed their target, but they say that they put more focus into improving the site, rather than localising languages for Europe and Asia (which is the route that Xing have taken).

Personally, when you look at how LinkedIn has changed in the last 12 months, then it makes sense, and 8.5 million is still keeping up with the "1 million users every 3 months" Konstantin Guericke talked about in this interview back in March 2007.

So, given that both these sites are still growing, have strong valuations with real revenue streams, and people are starting to understand how to use these new tools... I'm certain that 2007 will see even further growth and uptake of Business Social Networking sites.

And, BTW, I just checked LinkedIn this morning and another 5,679 people have joined my networking in the last two days :-)

Labels: social networking sites