30000 Groups: A brief look back

One of the crucial aspects of networking on XING are groups, which allow members to discuss, debate, and share information on a variety of topics and languages: industry-specific or generalist, regional or international. I am particularly pleased that as of today, we have over 30,000 groups on our platform. For that reason, I’d like to take you on a short journey through time, showing the moving and edifying history of groups (and of this blog).

The first groups went online on Christmas of 2003, and since then our members have been actively sharing information in them. At first we called them ‘networks’, but the naming conventions changed over time. Now individual discussion topics are grouped under categories known as ‘forums’, as is common online. Later, we launched another product, Private Clubs, which were derived from forums. Lars Hinrichs, founder of XING, had the following to say:

Urged on by a number of companies, we developed a customizable white label solution of our software and started distribution from July 2005 onwards. We realized though that this wasn’t completely in tune with our members’ interests and that continuing down this road would not be successful in the long term. Since then we have driven forward the expansion of our popular Groups functionality and introduced Enterprise Groups as a new home for companies on XING.

Urged on by a number of companies, we developed a customizable white label solution of our software and started distribution from July 2005 onwards. We realized, though, that this wasn’t completely in tune with our members’ interests and that continuing down this road would not be successful in the long term. Since then we have driven forward the expansion of our popular Groups functionality and introduced Enterprise Groups as a new home for companies on XING.We supplemented the original group product with Premium Groups, with an expanded feature set. Then, in November 2007, we granted Premium features to all groups, when we merged the two types of groups. For companies and large organizations, we have Enterprise Groups for setting up employee, alumni, or applicant communities and managing them effectively. Companies such as IBM, Microsoft, McKinsey and T-Systems have already set up networks using this product, creating groups with unique visual qualities and expanded functionalities.

Since 2007, we’ve had Official Regional XING Groups, which organize Official XING Events. Now there are over 200 Ambassadors for 140 Regional XING Ambassador Groups. in Berlin, Munich, Zürich, Ankara, Santiago de Chile, Oslo, and many more. …

Just a few weeks ago we launched XING Xpert Ambassador Groups (and had this to say about them).

The number of groups has been going up since they were launched: In January 2006 there were 2,500, in October 2007 over 7,600, in December 2008 we topped 22,000. At the end of 2008, the Turkish Cultural Club won the group logo context in which over 10,000 XING members took part. Now we have over 30,000 groups, and in preparation for the upcoming German elections political communities for the first time ever. Plus Xpert Ambassadors…

As you can see, XING groups are on the move – and I’m certain that it will stay that way. Looking forward to the next thousand or so groups…