Linktree is an Australian

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 ( ...

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

reference landing page service provider headquartered in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. It was developed by Alex Zaccaria, Anthony Zaccaria, and Nick Humphreys. 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 s ...

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 cannot or do not allow multiple

hyperlinks In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference providing direct access to data by a user's clicking or tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with ...

. In 2022, Linktree became a

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

after a funding round of $152 million which valued it at $1.7 billion.

History

Linktree was established in 2016, out of annoyance regarding social media that do 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 requested information for other programs or devices, called clients. Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending custome ...

to crash due to overload. In 2018,

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

banned the site due to "

spam Spam most often refers to: * Spam (food), a consumer brand product of canned processed pork of the Hormel Foods Corporation * Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages ** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages ...

", although it was lifted and Instagram issued an apology. It was reported that Linktree, started as a link-in-bio tool for

, was banned from Instagram in 2018, since it was 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 was lifted after thousands of users advocated on Linktree's behalf. Although the ban was lifted and Instagram issued an apology, as of March 2021, Instagram accounts for less than 40% of Linktree's profile traffic. 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 (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

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 clicks on a specific link to the number of times a page, email, or advertisement is shown. It is commonly used to measure the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular website, as well ...

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

, 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 per ...

. Amid the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

, 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 ...

' 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 (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

, organizations to donate to, and places to protest.

Accolades

In 2019, Linktree was included in

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

'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 includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...

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

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

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 ("merch" colloquially) 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 cus ...

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

Pinterest Pinterest is an American social media service for publishing and discovery of information in the form of digital Bulletin board, pinboards. This includes recipes, home, style, motivation, and inspiration on the Internet using image sharing. Pint ...

; while the fourth place of other years were

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

(2018 and 2021), Are.na (2019) and

Genies, Inc. Genies is an American AI avatar games technology company founded by Akash Nigam and Evan Rosenbaum in 2017. Genies' original consumer app allowed users to create fully personalized avatars to be used in apps such as Giphy, iMessage, and Instag ...

(2022).

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. In 2022, Linktree raised $152 million at a valuation of $1.7 billion. The investment round led by

Index Ventures Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with headquarters in both San Francisco and London. It invests primarily in tech companies. History Index Ventures has its origins in a Switzerland, Swiss bond (finance), bond-trading firm cal ...

and

Coatue Management Coatue is an American technology-focused investment management firm led by founder and portfolio manager Philippe Laffont. Coatue invests in both public and private markets, with a focus on technology, media, telecommunications, as well as the c ...

References

{{Reflist Social media Online services Business services companies established in 2016 Online advertising services and affiliate networks Companies based in Melbourne Companies based in Sydney Australian companies established in 2016

History

Features and subscriptions

Accolades

Funding

See also

References