Released on: February 14, 2012, 4:41 am
Author:
Masterseek Corp.
Industry:
Financial
With the success of business search engines and business profile sites, startups have become like rabbits out of a magician's hat. How many of these companies have the database and programming acuity to really make an impact though? The answer is few and the reasons are varied from poor functionality to vague address names, bad marketing and a basic lack of interest from those who would post a profile. The truth is, as we’ve seen with the dominance of sites liked LinkedIn, it only takes a couple of good ones to corner the market and all others more or less fall by the wayside.
There is one site to keep your eyes on when it comes to giving LinkedIn some real competition, and some stock analysts are already starting to pay attention.
Masterseek.com is an extensively successful B2B search engine already, the largest online with over 100 million business profiles and growing much faster than any of the competition. Recently financial experts have valued it at 18-20 USD per share and this could easily reach 35 very soon according to most forecasts. This new evaluation is coming on the coattails of rumors that Masterseek.com will be joining the likes of LinkedIn, Xing, Google+ and Facebook with a professional profiles section added to their already massive database.
How much truth is there to the rumor? It’s been confirmed that they’ve already compiled a database of 150 million professional profiles. That puts them right on par with LinkedIn and ahead of LinkedIn in sheer numbers when you include international profiles. Recently in another interview Masterseek President Rasmus Refer would not comment on the timing of this release; “We are working on many new activities with the objective to become the largest global provider of business information, but cannot tell you more about our plans right now.” They may be playing their cards close to the vest for now, but it appears the new release of a professional profile site is immanent.
You’re probably asking, what would make this different than the dozens of other professional profile sites that tried to go up against LinkedIn and failed miserably? There is a lot that sets Masterseek apart, even when compared to big time LinkedIn competitors like Google+. Here are just a few of the reasons Masterseek’s professional profile section will give LinkedIn a run for its money:
Masterseek already has a larger database than LinkedIn. LinkedIn is estimated to have around 125M profiles where Masterseek has 150M. A deeper look at these numbers shows that LinkedIn still has more U.S. profiles, but as we’ll show you that is likely to change fairly quickly after release. Add to that the growing number of business professionals actively seeking expertise from around the globe and being majority U.S. based is not necessarily a good thing anymore.
Masterseek uses an entirely different platform. Anyone familiar with their business listings already knows it is probably the most functional platform on the internet. It is easier to use, offers more customization and gives individuals and businesses full control over their own profile.
Masterseek has search capabilities far superior to any B2B search engine, and when compared apples to apples to the search functionality of the most popular consumer-based search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, even these juggernauts could learn a thing or two about relevant, fast and customized search results.
It’s free. While the big ones always are, it’s one of the sure signs of a professional profile site’s impending failure that they believe people will actually pay to be listed or that companies will pay for the information contained therein. Masterseek keeps their service free, which online is almost always the smart financial choice in the long run.
Perhaps most important of all, Masterseek is not going to be strictly a professional profiles website. Google+ attempted in its release to bridge the chasm between email, social network and professional business profile. It appears the gap is too great. After all, how many want to mix their business profile with pictures they send family and friends or their personal email? The same is true for Facebook’s professional profiles. Many a job has been lost because an employer found out what employees were up to on their social network. People don’t like to mix business and personal. LinkedIn on the other hand has had more success concentrating on one thing and one thing only, professional profiles. Masterseek by contrast is attempting a far more symbiotic relationship; a massive business search engine combined with professional profiles. Presumably this will be in large part employees and decision makers within those businesses already listed, contractors seeking work, freelancers and more. It will be a virtual hub of business activity. This just makes more sense. The more pressing question is why on earth has it not been attempted prior to this?
If you’ve been wondering when and where the next big B2B online craze was going to emerge, you may have found it with Masterseek.com. Unlike most fads though, this one has some real stay-power along with a database and IPO estimates to back it up.
Contact Details: Masterseek corp
Bredgade 31
DK- 1260 Copenhagen