Linktree is a

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

reference landing page developed by Alex Zaccaria, Anthony Zaccaria, and Nick Humphreys, headquartered in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Founded in 2016, it serves as a

landing page In online marketing, a landing page, sometimes known as a "lead capture page", "single property page", "static page", "squeeze page" or a "destination page", is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized se ...

for a person or company's entire associated links in social media, which rarely allows linking to multiple sites. The site was inspired by the developers' annoyance with social media that can't allow multiple hyperlinks.

History

Linktree was established in 2016, out of annoyance regarding social media that does not allow multiple hyperlinks in profiles. The site was created in six hours. It is reported to have gained 3,000 users overnight, which caused the

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...

crash Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...

due to overload. In 2018,

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

banned the site due to "

spam Spam may refer to: * Spam (food), a canned pork meat product * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...

", although it was lifted and Instagram issued an apology. In December 2018, the number of users reached 1 million, then 3 million by the end of 2019. By October 2020, Linktree had gained more than 8 million users. As of March 2021, the number of users reached nearly 16 million, with an increase of 300% over the previous year. In August 2021 Linktree announced the acquisition of smart link provider Odesli to become a "one-stop-shop" for musicians seeking to monetize their art.

Features and subscriptions

Linktree is a

service: it is free, but also offers a 'Pro' subscription launched in April 2017, which gives more benefits, such as more customization options, more detailed analytics,

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

sign-up integration, removal of the Linktree logo, etc. Users can upload as many links as they wish despite not subscribing. Pro analytics allows users to view their

click-through rate Click-through rate (CTR) is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email, or advertisement. It is commonly used to measure the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular we ...

s. Both offerings allow users to create a personalized and customizable page, that houses all social media links and official websites. Linktree also partnered with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

, allowing users to upload their Amazon store profile as an

affiliate link Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which affiliates receive a commission for each visit, signup or sale they generate for a merchant. This arrangement allows businesses to outsource part of the sales process. It is a form of ...

. Amid the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests and civil unrest against police brutality and racism that began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020, and largely took place during 2020. The civil unrest and protests began as part of internati ...

, Linktree allowed users to adopt a 'Support

Anti-Racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate a ...

' icon, which pops a tab linking visitors to articles to further understand

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

, organizations to donate to, and places to protest.

Accolades

In 2019, Linktree was included in

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

's 'Upstart 100' list of "brightest, most intriguing, young

startups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses t ...

promising to become the great companies of tomorrow." In March 2020,

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

placed Linktree as fourth place in the 'Most Innovative Companies of 2020' list in the 'Social media' category for "making Instagram's 'link in bio' into a sleek menu for sharing articles,

merch Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more i ...

, or paid partnerships." For comparison's sake, in that year the first place was Cameo and the third

Pinterest Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...

; while the fourth place of other years were

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

(2018 and 2021), Are.na (2019) and Genies, Inc. (2022).

Continuous Instagram bans

It is reported that Linktree, started as a link-in-bio tool for

, was banned from Instagram in 2018, since it is noted as "breaking the community standards," specifically as a spam website. Linktree stated that they were "working on it" with their "representatives on Instagram." This ban resulted in improving the relationship between Linktree and Instagram after thousands of users advocated on Linktree's behalf. Although the ban has been lifted and Instagram has issued an apology, rumors circulated in 2019 stating that Instagram would issue another ban. As of March 2021, Instagram accounts for less than 40% of Linktree's profile traffic.

Funding

On October 27, 2020, Linktree announced that it had received US$10.7 million in Series A financing from Airtree Ventures and Insight Partners. The funding is the company's first from an institutional investor. On March 26, 2021, Linktree announced the closing of a $45M Series B financing round. The round was co-led by Index Ventures and Coatue, with participation from returning investors AirTree Ventures and Insight Partners.{{Cite web, title=‘Link-in-bio’ company Linktree raises $45M Series B for its social commerce features, url=https://social.techcrunch.com/2021/03/26/link-in-bio-company-linktree-raises-45m-series-b-for-its-social-commerce-features/, access-date=2021-04-07, website=TechCrunch, language=en-US After raising $110M in January 2022, and offering to pay its employees $6,000 in a yearly bonus, the company announced it would fire 17% of its workforce citing changing dynamics. It did not reveal cash on hand.

References