Applications
Linkedin pushes valuation to $4.25 bn
MUMBAI: The shares of professional social networking site Linkedin soared and hit $92.99 as trading opened before settling to $84.43 showing a 87.6 per cent increase after its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.
According to a company statement, the network sold 7.84 million shares for $45 each. The company has said it plans to use the money it has raised for operations and possibly to buy other companies.
“To some extent, investors are buying Linkedin because they cannot get into Facebook. People are just really desperate to get into social media,” YCMNET Advisors‘ chief investment strategist Michael Yoshikami has been quoted as saying.
The pricing values the business focused networking website at $4.25 billion, a jump of nearly one-third over the course of the week, as its offering price was revised higher to reflect surging demand among investors seeking to add exposure to the burgeoning social networking space to their portfolios.
Linkedin‘s valuation, which is 17 times of its last year‘s sales of $243m, is well above that of members of the Nasdaq Composite index, where the average price ratio is just 4.3 times of annual sales.
The valuations are prompting fears of a bubble, much like that of the late 1990s. But they also reflect high hopes for social networking groups, which many investors believe will disrupt existing business models in media and the web, much as Apple did for the music and personal computer businesses.
It may be recalled that Renren, one of China‘s largest social networks, went public this month and is valued at 70 times of its last year‘s sales. Facebook, which is in the early stages of pursuing a public listing, was valued in private markets at 32 times last year‘s estimated sales as of March end, according to Nyppex, a network for trading ?shares ?of private groups.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
