XING

XING (named openBC/Open Business Club until November 17th, 2006) is a social software platform for enabling a small-world network for professionals. It is used by people from over 160 countries, albeit the majority of users are Germans. XING is the only multilingual social business network allowing professionals to establish networks internationally. Languages currently available include English, German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Chinese, Finnish, Swedish, Japanese, Turkish and many more. By displaying how each member is connected to any other member, it visualises 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 whom one is not already connected to, can only be accessed by the premium members. Premium membership comes at a monthly fee around 6 USD. The platform uses https and has a rigid privacy and no-spam policy. Unlike many other networking websites, XING provides its members very easy email access to any members.

XING started in November 2003 in Hamburg, Germany. It gained high attention in German media and is used a lot as business-network in German-speaking countries. Membership from other countries throughout Europe and the Far East helped growing the network platform to more than 1.5 million members in July 2006^[1].

XING offers the system as well for closed communities, i.e. private clubs, academic clubs or corporate clubs with own access paths and own interface designs.