The French press has been going crazy announcing the opening of Linkedin’s new Paris office. Finally, it looks like Linkedin in stepping-up its game to take on French rival, Viadeo. In France, Viadeo counts 4 million users, which is double that of Linkedin’s French userbase. Then again, Viadeo is trailing behind Linkedin internationally with 35 million users to Linkedin’s 90 million. Ouch.
Linkedin, which has European offices in London, the Netherlands and Ireland is obviously launching this office in France for strategic reasons. Laurence Bret, Linkedin’s new EMEA Marketing Director, seems to be running the Paris office for now. She joined the team in Janaury after spending 2 years with French startup Silentale. Prior to Linkedin and Silentale, Laurence was at AOL and France Télécom…at least, according to her Linkedin profile.
Linkedin hasn’t currenly released much info about their plans in France but they are recuiting ! Check out the two open positions here and here.