ZoomInfo and Xing Timidly Stare Down Facebook
Yesterday, short on the heels of Facebook making user profiles searchable and thereby possibly killing people search in the womb, the people/business search engine, ZoomInfo announced that it had opened up its API. Unlike LinkedIn, who fought Facebook with facebook, ZoomInfo seemed to be fighting the Facebook effect by seeking strength in numbers and partnering with other players in the fields of search and business networking in case.
Well, those numbers are already coming together. ZoomInfo has already partnered with Xing, another social-network/directory/search-engine for business professionals. As the press release explains:
Waltham, MA (PRWEB) September 7, 2007 -- Business information search engine ZoomInfo™ and XING AG, the operator of XING -- one of the foremost networks for business professionals -- today announced the ability for users to co-register with both sites and manage their digital identity. Now professionals can manage their online identity while creating a XING profile to network with other professionals. Following the strategic partnership announced in June 2007, this release represents the first step toward the comprehensive integration between ZoomInfo and XING, expected later this year.
As previously announced, the partnership will provide XING members with immediate access to ZoomInfo's profiles on over 37 million business people and 3.5 million companies. In the coming months, XING AG's 3.5 million members will have access to ZoomInfo profiles and will be able to search for and reach out to new contacts using ZoomInfo's patented semantic search capabilities. ZoomInfo profiles will also begin including a person's professional network using confirmed contacts on XING.
Both services emphasize people search and target business professionals. A partnership between such similar services signals that there are serious concerns about Facebook's competitive edge. Indeed, many business professionals are already using their Facebook profiles much more actively than they do LinkedIn. That Facebook has now expressed its intentions to enter the realm of search both solely and then by collaborating with Google, Yahoo, MSN Live, and Ask obviously puts all variants of people search engines and business social networks in a very precarious position.
Now even if Facebook becomes the next Google, that doesn't mean that LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, or Xing are going to disappear over night. After all, many like to keep their personal and professional life separate, and use both Facebook and the latter set of services respectively. Besides, the very fact that the latter set of services already have an established user base means that they probably have a couple of years in which to maneuver toward more stable ground.
What is of paramount concern for them, however, is that Facebook's recent moves mean that new registrations will probably begin to wane. Fewer new members means slowed growth, and in a growth economy, stagnancy is near death. What the ZoomInfo-Xing partnership needs, then, is a way to appeal to new users. Facebook obviously doesn't need them, which means that Facebook users won't need them even if they were able to match The Book function for function.
Their salvation, then, will probably be two-step process. First, they need a Facebook application so that they remain visible to Faceboook users. Second, they need to focus on their niche (or vertical) and determine what kind of functionality would appeal strictly to business users. Finally, they need use their Facebook application to publicize that functionality.
All this, of course, is still no guarantee that companies such as ZoomInfo or Xing won't still be relegated to being second-class services that rely on The Book. Indeed, one of the reasons that Facebook has been coined a social operating system is that its widget/app potential means that it may very well become the only place that users login when they want to interact online.
