Viadeo is a

Web 2.0 Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...

professional social network A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

whose members include business owners, entrepreneurs and managers. Viadeo was often compared to

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

, offering free access but not being able to compete with the larger corporation. As of 2014, the site had 65 million members.

Company information

Viadeo was founded under its original name, Viaduc, in May 2004 by

Dan Serfaty Dan Serfaty (born February 5, 1966 in Strasbourg, France) is a French entrepreneur and businessman. He is best known as the former co-founder and CEO of the professional social network Viadeo. Biography After graduating from HEC Paris Entre ...

, a graduate of the

HEC School of Management HEC Paris (french: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) is a business school, and one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles, located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. HEC offers Master in Management, MSc International Fin ...

in Paris, and Thierry Lunati, a graduate of

École centrale Paris École Centrale Paris (ECP; also known as École Centrale or Centrale) was a French grande école in engineering and science. It was also known by its official name ''École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures''. In 2015, École Centrale Paris mer ...

. The name was changed to Viadeo in November 2006. From November 2006 to August 2007, Viadeo raised €5 million twice in funding from investors AGF Private Equity and Ventech. Later that year, Viadeo announced the acquisition of Tianji.com, a Chinese business social network. Six months after purchasing Tianji, in July 2008 Viadeo acquired its Spanish competitor ICTnet. Launched in 1995, ICTnet had 300,000 members and is popular in South America. In early 2009, Viadeo acquired the Indian professional social networks services,

ApnaCircle Viadeo is a Web 2.0 professional social network whose members include business owners, entrepreneurs and managers. Viadeo was often compared to LinkedIn, offering free access but not being able to compete with the larger corporation. As of 2014, ...

. ApnaCircle, with 300,000 members at the time of the acquisition, was founded by Yogesh Bansal and later joined by

Sabeer Bhatia Sabeer Bhatia (born 30 December 1968) is an Indian businessman who co-founded the webmail company Hotmail.com. Career Bhatia briefly worked for Apple Computer, as a hardware engineer and Firepower Systems Inc. He, along with his colleague Ja ...

, co-founder of

Hotmail Outlook.com is a webmail service that is part of the Microsoft 365 product family. It offers mail, Calendaring software, calendaring, Address book, contacts, and Task management, tasks services. Founded in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smit ...

, as board member. On 13 October 2009, Viadeo announced the acquisition of the Canadian contact management website, unyk.com. At the time, unyk had 16 million members around the world, and this made Viadeo second only to its main competitor

in terms of total membership. The company is headquartered in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and employs a global staff of 450, with offices in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. In 2009, Viadeo had estimated annual turnover of $40 million and is profitable since last quarter of 2009. In August 2015, Viadeo announced they had engaged in an advertising campaign in France to promote a 'new vision' and that the member base had passed the 10 million mark in France. In 2016, after a failed attempt to conquer international markets, the company was taken over by Le Figaro.

Partnerships

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

OpenSocial OpenSocial is a public specification that defines a component hosting environment (container) and a set of common application programming interfaces (APIs) for web applications. Initially, it was designed for social network applications and d ...

: Viadeo is partner since launch in 2007 * IBM

Lotus Notes HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provide ...

: Viadeo available for professionals using IBM Lotus Notes *

Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 software suites. Though primarily an email client, Outlook also includes such functions as Calen ...

Connector: Viadeo available on Outlook.

References

External links

Viadeo WebsiteViadeo Corporate Website
{{Microblogging Internet properties established in 2004 Professional networks French social networking websites Software companies of France

Company information

Partnerships

See also

References

External links