provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject . please help improve the article with a good introductory style . may 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message xing ag type aktiengesellschaft traded as fwb o1bc founded august 2003 ; 13 years ago 2003 08 hamburg germany headquarters hamburg germany key people dr. thomas vollmoeller ceo stefan winners chairman of the supervisory board revenue 54.3 million 2010 1 operating income 11.5 million 2010 1 profit 7.2 million 2010 1 total assets 95.6 million end 2010 1 total equity 61.2 million end 2010 1 employees 649 2014 2 website www.xing.com alexa rank 1020 december 2015 update 3 type of site professional network service registration required available in simplified chinese dutch english finnish french german hungarian italian japanese korean polish portuguese russian spanish swedish turkish launched november 2003 xing named openbc open business club until 17 november 2006 is a career oriented social networking site 4 for enabling a small world network for professionals . the company claims that it is used by people from over 200 countries . available interface languages include dutch english finnish french german hungarian italian japanese korean spanish polish portuguese russian simplified chinese swedish and turkish . by displaying how each member is connected to any other member it visualizes the small world phenomenon . the platform offers personal profiles groups discussion forums event coordination and other common social community features . basic membership is free . but many core functions like searching for people with specific qualifications or messaging people to whom one is not already connected can only be accessed by the premium members . premium membership comes at a monthly fee from 6.35 to 9.95 depending on the billing interval you choose and the country you are from . 5 the platform uses https and has a rigid privacy and no spam policy . xing provides its paying members very easy email access to any members . xing has a special ambassador program for each city or region around the world with a substantial constituency . the ambassadors hold local events that promote the use of social networking as a business tool letting members introduce business ideas to one another and get to know each other on a personal level . xing competes with the american platform linkedin and the european viadeo 6 for social networking among businesses . 7 xing also offers the system for closed communities called enterprise groups with their own access paths and interface designs . the platform serves as the infrastructure for corporate groups including ibm mckinsey accenture and others . 8 about 76 % of all pageviews come from germany 90 % from the d a ch area germany austria and switzerland . 9 contents 1 history 2 ipo 3 xing mobile 4 xing plug ins 5 criticism 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit open business club ag was founded in august 2003 in hamburg germany as a german limited liability company by lars hinrichs . 10 the platform was officially launched on 1 november 2003 . 11 it was renamed from openbc to xing on 17 november 2006 . it gained much attention in german media and is widely used as a business network in german speaking countries dach region . membership from other countries throughout europe and the far east helped the network platform grow to more than 1.5 million members in july 2006 . 12 ipo edit the company went public ipo on 7 december 2006 with an issue price of 30 euros . the open business club stock ticker symbol is o1bc.de and its isin number is de000xng8888 . xing became the first web 2.0 company to go public in europe . 13 xing mobile edit xing.com mobile allows users to access some of its functions using a mobile phone pda or smartphone . standards supported html 3.2 xhtml mp 1.0 wml 1.1 . xing plug ins edit xing.com plugins are available for free download that allow contact synchronization with lotus notes microsoft outlook 14 windows address book and outlook express . it also allows manual csv file import export and has a firefox search plug in . criticism edit the company s official demeanour regarding name changes is problematic . if the circumstances leading to the change are not one of the most common additional proof is demanded . these unusual cases are easily spotted by xing due to dedicated fields for data entry being present in case of marriage maiden name and academic titles . in case of transsexuals however given names and gender will not be changed unless medical expert evidence or court documents are provided which offer proof of an assured medical diagnosis or file reference to a court ruling in regard to a name change case respectively . 15 16 this behaviour is a deep invasion of privacy because the demanded documents are highly personal typically detailing the most intimate spheres of life behaviour and thought . if the changes are carried out birth names are removed which is legally required because any disclosure or investigation would be illegal under the purview of german law as per sec . 5 para . 1 and sec . 10 para . 2 transsexual act . 15 16 see also edit linkedin viadeo boardex meettheboss professional network social software social networking list of social networking websites references edit a b c d e annual report 2010 pdf . xing . retrieved 19 november 2011 . annual report 2014 pdf . xing . retrieved 5 february 2016 . xing.com site info . alexa internet . retrieved 2014 11 15 . buettner ricardo 2016 . getting a job via career oriented social networking sites the weakness of ties . 49th annual hawaii international conference on system sciences . kauai hawaii ieee . doi 10.13140 rg .2.1.3249.2241 . premium account upgrade 18 march 2014 the economist does local beat global in the professional networking business move over silicon valley here come european start ups by john markoff 24 january 2007 the new york times usa linkedin takes on xing or the other way around by carsten cumbrowski 29 january 2007 searchenginejournal.com http linkedinsiders.wordpress.com 2012 02 12 linkedin the next big xing businessnetzwerke in deutschland 2012 lars hinrichs on twitter.com xing.com q & a archived 6 june 2007 at the wayback machine . question 2 . when was the company founded s ddeutsche zeitung 2006 07 12 archived december 1 2006 at the wayback machine . web 2.0 company xing raises 35.7 million in ipo by graham charlton 12 . dec 2006 e consultancy.com tutorial connecting social networks with outlook german a b stock response of team quality and security of xing ag to affected persons a b stock response of head of customer service of xing ag to affected persons external links edit official website v t e tecdax companies of germany updated 18.03.2013 adva optical networking aixtron bb biotech bechtle cancom ag carl zeiss meditec dialog semiconductor dr gerwerk drillisch euromicron evotec freenet ag jenoptik kontron lpkf laser & electronics morphosys nordex se pfeiffer vacuum psi ag qiagen qsc ag sartorius ag sma solar technology software ag stratec biomedical systems s ss microtec telef nica germany united internet wirecard xing v t e social networking services websites personal 23snaps anobii asianave askfm badoo bebo cymbal cyworld diaspora draugiem.lv ello facebook foursquare google hello hi5 highlight instagram keek lockerdome meetme mewe mixbit mixi mobli musical.ly myspace odnoklassniki nasza klasa.pl nextdoor path peach pinterest pixnet pheed renren sina weibo slidely snapchat so.cl spaces sportlobster spring.me streetlife studivz swarm tagged taringa tea party community tout ts tuenti tvshow time tumblr twitter untappd vk vine whisper xanga yo qzone professional academia.edu brainly branchout edmodo exo platform ibm connections linkedin researchgate sciencescape solaborate viadeo xing ideaplane yammer defunct capazoo emojli formspring friendfeed friends reunited friendster grono.net hyves itunes ping iwiw jaiku me2day netlog orkut sixdegrees.com tvtag wretch white label services ning wall.fm tools opensocial social network analysis software diaspora software web 2.0 suicide machine general comparison of software online identity user profile virtual community 1 million users 100 million users applications social network advertising social network hosting service online dating service comparison mobile user interface activity stream brand page like button hashtag groups reblogging polling internet petitions implications privacy issues user gender difference use in investigations related concepts small world experiment small world network social network cybersectarianism panopticon protocols distributed social networking protocol v t e microblogging websites app.net diaspora edmodo facebook fanfou gab google identi.ca linkedin migme myspace plurk sina weibo solaborate tencent weibo qzone tout tumblr twitter viadeo vk xing defunct google buzz heello jaiku meme me2day natter posterous pownce qaiku platforms diaspora exo platform friendica gnu social openmicroblogging pump.io webfinger features reblogging activity stream lifestreaming hashtag backchannel mention replies other topics microblogging in china microblogging novel micropoetry comparison of microblogging services retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title xing & oldid 742382763 categories companies based in hamburgprofessional networkscommunity websitessocial networking serviceshidden categories articles with wayback machine linkswikipedia articles needing context from may 2012all wikipedia articles needing contextwikipedia introduction cleanup from may 2012all pages needing cleanupuse dmy dates from february 2012articles containing potentially dated statements from december 2015all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search 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