What Entrepreneurs Expect LinkedIn To Be Post Its Merger With Microsoft Improvising news feed, more users and amalgamation of products are some of the few notable expectations!
By Sneha Banerjee •
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Professional networking firm LinkedIn Corp has always been an important networking and marketing platform for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs and VCs are often seen sharing their thoughts about their products/startups, posting job ads, blogging and giving their viewpoint on latest industry stories. Both Twitter and LinkedIn are very important platforms for networking in the startup space, wherein they not only connect with their industry folks but also touch base with the media fraternity.
A couple of days back, Linkedin was bought by Microsoft Corp for a whopping $26.2 billion. Post that there have been various theories around how resourceful and important this deal could be for the social media space and how this collaboration could change things for both the companies.
At Entrepreneur Media, we asked Indian entrepreneurs, who are regular voices on the social media platform, to share their thoughts on what they think this deal could mean for LinkedIn!
Vikram Ahuja, Founder of Byond Travel
"I think the acquisition comes as a tremendous boost for the SaaS and enterprise segment and I'm sure many startups in a similar domain would look at this with a lot of encouragement.
Given Microsoft's terrible track record with acquisitions (Skype, Nokia et al), one thing many entrepreneurs will hope to NOT see is LinkedIn becoming a MS mouthpiece and a space for in-your-face promotions of MS integrations (Outlook, office365 etc). So in that regard, I think entrepreneurs will hope to continue to see LinkedIn operate independently and in an unbiased fashion. Another thing I think that we will expect is focus and improvement. Given that a lot of the revenue pressure will be off LinkedIn, hopefully that means focus on quality of timeline, content and usefulness of LinkedIn as a product. For most enterprise users, they will hope that LinkedIn's "Social" features will seamlessly integrate with the MS suite allowing for a more contextual and smarter CRM, with data pulled in from Linkedin"
Sachin Shenoy, CEO and co-founder of LetsService
"I expect to see some discipline coming in when it comes to the content that flows into our news feed. In General, LinkedIn news feed is not as smart as Facebook and if I am online through the day, I end up seeing the same news/articles each time I refresh the page. Specifically with Microsoft coming into the picture, I see this being a strong play against "Facebook for work" program launched by Facebook. Interesting times ahead!"
Anupam Sinhal, Co-founder BookMyBai
"I hope that Microsoft integrates their existing products like Office 365 with LinkedIn which will simplify and increase the speed of co-ordination and communication. Also with existing database of Hotmail and their products, they should be able to get a lot more users on the platform. This will increase our spread of available candidates who can take up senior roles in the startups.
Prasanna Soparkar, Founder and MD, Core Integra
Microsoft should look to introduce some new features which are currently missing. They should be on the lines of Whatsapp or Facebook, giving users a chance to interact and engage in a discussion as in its current form, the site is quite static with hardly any scope of interactions. Looking for cost effective revenue model should also be explored rather than keeping it free. Ads on the site can be a good starting point to generate additional revenues. Since Linkedin has a vast database, Microsoft should use SaaS model to offer its products like Office 365 commercial.
