Xing (social network)

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New Work SE

logo
legal form European society
ISIN DE000NWRK013
founding 2003
Seat Hamburg , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management
  • Board of Directors:
    Petra von Strombeck ( Chairman ),
    Ingo Chu,
    Patrick Alberts,
    Jens Pape,
    Petra von Strombeck
Number of employees 1567 (2018)
sales 235 million euros (2018)
Branch Social networks
Website www.new-work.se
As of December 31, 2018

Xing ( spelling XING ) is a social network in which members primarily manage their professional contacts. Xing is operated by the listed New Work SE (until July 2019 Xing SE ) based in Hamburg . Xing primarily offers a platform for business networks mainly in German-speaking countries, in contrast to globally oriented networks such as LinkedIn . There is a branch in Spain with an office in Barcelona .

New Work

Key figures
year Sales in € million Employee
2008 35.3 174
2009 45.1 265
2010 54.3 306
2011 66.2 456
2012 73.3 513
2013 84.8 571
2014 101.4 649
2015 123.0 792
2016 148.5 961
2017 187.8 1,290
2018 235.1 1,567

Xing is operated by Hamburg-based New Work SE (until July 2007 under the name Open Business Club AG , then Xing SE until July 2019 ). The platform was founded in August 2003 under the name OpenBC (Open Business Club) by Lars Hinrichs and, according to the annual report at the end of the first quarter of 2012, had over 12 million users, 793,000 of them with a premium membership . As of March 31, 2012, 5.51 million members came from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, including 765,000 paying members. In Germany alone, Xing has 2.6 to 3.5 million visits from users per month. In March 2016, the company registered 10 million members in the DA-CH region, including 880,000 premium members.

The company went public in December 2006. In November 2009, the media house Hubert Burda Media announced that it had acquired 25.1% of the shares in Cinco Capital GmbH. The managing director of Cinco Capital is founder Lars Hinrichs. Burda thus became the main shareholder. As of March 20, 2012, Burda Digital GmbH held 29.7% of the Xing shares. By October 2012, Burda expanded its stake to 39.89 percent and made a takeover offer for Xing. As a result, by the end of the offer on December 7, 2012, Burda's stake had increased to 59.2%. The share was reduced to 52.6% in February 2013.

In December 2010 it was announced that Xing had bought the Munich-based online ticket sales and event organization provider Amiando for a total price of 10.35 million euros with effect from January 1, 2011. Xing members can now use amiando services for online events directly via Xing, i.e. offer and sell event tickets. Amiando is now known under the name Xing Events .

At the beginning of January 2013, Xing announced a takeover in e-recruiting: the professional network bought the Austrian employer rating portal Kununu . The purchase price initially amounted to EUR 3.6 million and was able to increase by EUR 5.8 million by 2015 - depending on the business development of Kununu.

In the 2011 financial year, the company achieved sales of 66.2 million euros and was thus 22% higher than the sales in the 2010 financial year. From 2008 to 2012, Stefan Groß-Selbeck was CEO of Xing, the current CEO is Thomas Vollmoeller. The shares have been traded on the stock exchange since December 7, 2006, and have been listed in the TecDAX since September 2011. The company has been focusing on the German-speaking market since 2012. About 91% of the page views come from the DA-CH region.

On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, in 2013 Xing published the print magazine Spielraum on topics relating to the changing world of work. The New Work Award was then given to companies with the best ideas for the new world of work. The project was continued with blogs, even producing own content and involving external experts such as Thomas Sattelberger . The editorial management is the former Stern.de deputy editor Ralf Klassen.

Shareholder structure

Share
(in percent)		 Shareholders
54.84 Burda Digital
5.04 Oppenheimer Holdings
3.02 Wasatch Advisors
2.98 Union Investment (majority to DZ Bank )
2.95 DWS Investments (majority owned by Deutsche Bank )
2.83 Norges Bank
32.92 Free float

(As of March 2, 2018)

functionality

Registered users can enter both professional and private data in a profile. Studies, training and professional career are presented in tabular form, similar to the curriculum vitae. References support the entries. In addition, users can enter a profile picture, their interests and individual information about themselves on the about me page . However, there is no obligation to completely fill in the profile with all fields. Using this information, contact requests can be formulated as requests and offers. In order to establish contact, it is necessary that a request for contact is confirmed by the other party. In any case, the user himself decides who gets to see which information (e.g. phone number, email address or date of birth) from his profile.

Membership requires registration. The free (basic) membership has limited functionality in contrast to the paid premium membership. For example, the search function is only fully available to premium members.

The free Xing membership can be terminated at any time using the support contact form. The account will be completely deleted with all entered data. The termination of the premium membership is only possible with a three-week (until March 2014: fourteen-day) notice period to the end of a completed period.

A programming interface (API) is available to external developers and other companies in order to offer their own functionality in Xing or to be able to call up their own data. This interface was initially in a semi-public test stage (closed beta) from March 2012 and was then activated for all developers in December 2012.

A separate app was developed for mobile devices. Xing is thus a direct competitor to its US counterpart LinkedIn .

User functions

The Xing user interface is multilingual and takes into account members with commonly spoken languages ​​in the search function. The following system languages ​​are currently supported: German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese and Turkish.

In addition to database-oriented maintenance of contacts, Xing offers public event calendars that are presented to the user in a thematic and regional manner. The appointment function can also be used to organize private appointments. The offer also includes over 70,000 discussion forums (as of March 28, 2017), some of which are public and some are only accessible to a certain group of users. This also includes closed user groups with extended functions for organizations and companies. In addition to the online offer, there are numerous regional groups that organize local meetings where personal contacts can be made. Members organized more than 180,000 events in 2010.

Each registered user also has their own mailbox. However, this is only accessible via the Xing portal. Users can also call up functions of the instant messaging and VoIP software Skype directly . Since October 2007, Xing has also been offering a job exchange (until March 2009 under the Marketplace label ). Members of the platform can both post job offers themselves and search for vacancies. Xing is one of the first German job exchanges to use a pay-per-click billing process. The costs of job advertisements are not calculated according to flat rates, but according to how often they were viewed by other users. In the meantime, Xing has also introduced the industry-standard fixed price model as an alternative.

Registration and use of the basic functions is free. Paying members receive, among other things, extended search and statistics functions; z. For example, you can see which other members have accessed their own contact page and which of their own contacts have made a change in their professional position within the last two months. Until the revision of the platform on September 15, 2010, only premium members could send messages to other Xing members, while basic members could only reply to messages. In the meantime, basic members can almost fully use the messaging function within their contact network. Only file attachments are reserved for Premium members. Since April 2010, basic members can also have a status report displayed on their profile. Premium profiles are ad-free.

The target group of this platform of social software are, on the one hand, working people who maintain their contact network (partners, customers, friends, interested parties, ex-colleagues, ex-fellow students, etc.) online. In order to become a member, Internet users must be 18 years of age. Another target group are companies that can present themselves with the help of a company profile and maintain their employer branding .

Xing Klartext is a business journalistic offering with a platform for contributions to debates. Roland Tichy acted as editor until January 2017, Jennifer Lachman is editor-in-chief of the online magazine. Tichy resigned after public criticism of his dual role as Klartext publisher and editor of the conservative magazine Tichy's insight .

Special user categories

There are 116 members who hold a prominent position on the platform as so-called ambassadors (as of February 2016). A total of 59 people each represent a large region , moderate a group for this purpose and regularly organize official Xing events. In addition, 52 industry ambassadors (also: Xpert Ambassadors) have a special position, each acting as exclusive industry representatives on the platform and also organizing the professional exchange in a group as well as at official Xing events. The role of ambassador is assigned by Xing and depends on the reach and reputation of the member in his region or his industry. Many ambassadors have tens of thousands of members in their groups and therefore often have a greater reach than regional newspapers or national specialist magazines. The role of the ambassador is marked in color on the member's profile next to the name - regional ambassadors receive an orange, Xpert ambassadors a blue sign.

As of November 2016, Xing offers 129 selected members the opportunity to publish their own specialist articles on Xing. Xing members can subscribe to these articles.

criticism

Since March 2014, Xing has been charging significantly higher prices for Switzerland (more than 60%) than for customers in other countries (Germany, Austria), which has led to corresponding criticism.

Data protectionists complain that participants, ignorant of the protection setting options, reveal their own contact relationships to the general public without protection. There are a number of websites that offer assistance to help users stay in control of their personal information.

The “Members who recently accessed my contact page” function, which can only be used without restriction by premium users, makes the way in which the platform is used for other users, consciously or unconsciously. The “News from my network” function also triggered heated discussions among members.

There was further criticism in early January 2008 when it became known that advertisements were being displayed on the profile pages when non-paying members access them. The paying members felt they were insufficiently informed about this innovation. Due to the numerous criticisms, a function was first installed with which paying members can prevent advertising on their profiles. Shortly afterwards, the advertisements were completely switched off again.

Xing automatically collects company profiles when at least four employees are registered with Xing. This was problematic because, among other things, these company profiles do not have an imprint. According to a ruling by the Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court, companies can have these automatically created profiles deleted.

Former members with a canceled account complain that they still receive newsletters and messages via email even after the cancellation.

In April 2019, Xing received a warning from the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer center for non-transparent termination options. The warning was based on the fact that premium users could declare their termination online, but then received an email in which they had to confirm the termination by clicking a button. If the button was not clicked, Xing would not accept it and continue to demand money from the premium users. Despite the warning, a premium user still has to confirm the termination via a button in an email.

A large part of the public criticism about Xing includes the lack of information flow when the premium membership is automatically renewed. Premium members receive neither an email nor a notification on the Xing profile.

literature

Web links

Commons : XING  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Xing SE has completed the renaming and now operates under the name New Work SE. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Imprint | XING. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Annual Report 2018. (PDF) In: xing.com. Retrieved July 20, 2019 .
  4. ↑ German market is far from being scanned on focusonline on August 12, 2012.
  5. ↑ Imprint , accessed on September 18, 2019
  6. ↑ Xing SE becomes New Work SE. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Quarterly Report 2012 (PDF)
  8. ↑ Presentation of the interim report from Xing ( Memento from November 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (offline)
  9. ↑ Statista
  10. ↑ Joy at Xing: Career network reports over 10 million members in the DACH region. In: meedia.de. Retrieved April 2, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Burda becomes the main shareholder of Xing. In: kress. November 18, 2009, archived from the original on November 21, 2009 ; Retrieved April 11, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Xing: Hubert Burda Media new main shareholder of Xing AG ( Memento of December 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Christof Schürmann: Xing in sight. In: Wirtschaftswoche , March 17, 2012.
  14. ^ Report on www.heise.de from October 26, 2012 . Retrieved November 18, 2012
  15. ^ Announcement of the takeover offer from Burda Digital GmbH on October 26, 2012 . Retrieved November 18, 2012
  16. ↑ Burda News: Stake in Xing AG increased ( Memento from December 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved December 12, 2012 (offline)
  17. ↑ Xing share: Successful package placement . ( Memento from July 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Hubert Burda Media, February 14, 2013. (offline)
  18. ↑ Kaczmarek, Joel: Amiando feels sold below value: Xing takes over for 10.35 million euros. December 10, 2010, accessed December 10, 2010 .
  19. ↑ Xing Events / amiando: Event management solutions from a single source. In: de.xing-events.com. Retrieved April 2, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Xing takes over the career portal in Austria. January 8, 2013, accessed January 9, 2013 .
  21. ^ Website of Stefan Groß-Selbeck at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
  22. ↑ OpenBC boss is satisfied. In: ARD. December 7, 2006, archived from the original on October 6, 2008 ; Retrieved April 11, 2016 .
  23. ↑ spielraum: Burda produces Xing magazine . wuv.de , October 3, 2013.
  24. ↑ These are Germany's best employers . In: Focus Money Online, January 28, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  25. ↑ Xing continues spielraum digital . kress.de, April 29, 2014.
  26. ↑ General Terms and Conditions, accessed on November 10, 2014
  27. ↑ Björn Minkmar: Closed Beta Version of Xing Developer Portal now LIVE . devblog.xing.com, March 7, 2012. Retrieved March 28, 2017.
  28. ↑ Xing Developer ends beta phase and publishes API . heise online, December 12, 2012. Accessed December 25, 2017.
  29. ↑ App for mobile devices
  30. ↑ Groups on Xing. In: xing.com. Xing AG, accessed on March 28, 2017 .
  31. ↑ Roland Tichy wants to form the “voice of the German economy” . Horizont, October 19, 2015, accessed November 25, 2016.
  32. ↑ Marc-Sven Kopka: Statement Xing. In: Xing Corporate Blog. Xing, January 9, 2016, accessed January 9, 2016 .
  33. ^ Nils Jacobsen: Xing: Shitstorm and wave of layoffs after outrage over news publisher Roland Tichy. Meedia, January 8, 2017, accessed January 9, 2017 .
  34. ↑ Xing is becoming more expensive for the Swiss . Inside-IT, March 12, 2014, accessed March 15, 2014.
  35. ↑ Sicherheitskultur.at
  36. ↑ rumohr.de
  37. ↑ New Xing function raises privacy concerns. In: heise online. Retrieved June 30, 2018 .
  38. ↑ werbeblogger.de ( Memento from January 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  39. ↑ Court: Automatic company profile in Xing does not have to be accepted. In: heise online. Retrieved June 30, 2018 .
  40. ↑ Attempt to terminate: Xing - stubborn as herpes . In: Spiegel Online . September 7, 2016 ( spiegel.de [accessed June 30, 2018]).
  41. ↑ Xing membership: be careful when you cancel online. In: verbrauchzentrale.de. Retrieved August 12, 2020 .
  42. ↑ XING is rated 1.3 out of 5 as “unsatisfactory” on Trustpilot. In: Trustpilot. Retrieved August 12, 2020 .