XING continues growth course

* 70% increase in EBITDA in Q1
* Two thirds of growth generated by new sources of revenue
* Strongest member growth in German-speaking countries since Q1 2009

Hamburg, May 10, 2011 – In the first quarter of 2011, XING AG successfully continued the growth course set during the 2010 financial year. The market leader in German-speaking countries reported an EBITDA of €5.6 million during Q1 2011, which represents an increase of 70% compared to the EBITDA of €3.3 million in Q1 2010. Total revenues rose by 24% to €15.7 million compared to €12.6 million in Q1 2010. The EBITDA margin of around 36% easily exceeded the figure for Q1 2010 (26%). The profit for the period also rose by 114% to €2.7 million as opposed to €1.26 million in Q1 2010. This is the highest quarterly result in the Company’s history.

About two thirds of the increase in revenues are attributable to the Company’s e-Recruiting, Advertising, and New Verticals segments. The latter is a new segment for XING, and consists of revenues from online event marketing based on the acquisition of amiando AG, Europe’s leading tool for online event registration, in December 2010. The e-Recruiting segment reported the largest increase in revenues, rising by 89% to €2.7 million compared to €1.4 million in Q1 2010.

Stefan Gross-Selbeck, CEO at XING AG, said that “The first three months of the 2011 financial year were highly successful for XING. Our strategy of tapping into and expanding new sources of revenue is really paying off. The planned special distribution of funds to our shareholders amounting to a total of €20 million is also indicative of XING’s financial strength.”

In March 2011, the Company announced that it would suggest paying a special distribution of funds from capital reserves in the amount of €20 million to its shareholders at this year’s AGM on May 26. After that takes place, the Company will still have liquid assets of approximately €40 million. “This puts us in an excellent position in terms of forging ahead with our growth strategy”, Stefan Gross-Selbeck added.

The dynamic member growth in the Company’s German-speaking core markets continued in Q1 with the number of users in Germany, Switzerland and Austria rising by 215,000 to around 4.7 million – the strongest member growth seen in the last eight quarters. The German-speaking countries saw 20% year-on-year member growth for the period. Overall, membership figures in Q1 increased from 9.2 million to 10.8 million, while the number of paying members rose by 14,000, taking the total to 759,000.

About XING
XING is the social network for business professionals. More than 10.8 million members worldwide use XING to boost their business, job, and career. XING is a platform where professionals from all kinds of different industries can meet up, find jobs, colleagues, new assignments, cooperation partners, experts and generate business ideas. Members can meet and exchange views in over 45,000 specialist groups, while also getting together at networking events. The platform is operated by XING AG, which was founded in Hamburg, Germany, in 2003 and has been publicly listed since 2006. In December 2010, XING acquired amiando AG, a Munich-based company and Europe’s leading provider of online event management and ticketing. Please visit www.xing.com for more information.

Marc-Sven Kopka
Vice President Corporate Communications
XING AG
Gaensemarkt 43
20354 Hamburg
Germany

+49 40-419131-763
presse@xing.com
https://www.xing.com/profile/MarcSven_Kopka/

This release was published on openPR.