XING, The First Web 2.0 IPO

Recently, one of Profy’s contributors, bel3bel, wrote up a review of OpenBC. Monday morning, Om Malik, one of the most respected names in tech journalism today, uncovered a piece of news that I thought would add something extra to the original post here at Profy: The first ever IPO from a Web 2.0 company will be issued in the near future.

This could be big, or it could sink fast. XING is the name of the outfit, previously known as OpenBC. According to the CEO, they’re evolving to provide the best professional collaboration software on the web in the coming months.

A look at the preview trailer highlighted XING’s collaborative powers, allowing for live networking to take place among teams and across corporate divides throughout the world. In the brief letter, Lars Hinrichs (CEO) states XING’s “primary goal is to enable you to do your work more quickly, easiliy, efficiently, and with greater economy.” If XING is all it’s cracked up to be, there’s a good chance that this IPO will make it flourish on the new social internet of the new millennium.

Of course, we’ll have to see how it performs when thrust into the public eye come its stock market debut, but at a time when Google is looking to encroach on Microsoft’s turf with its own web-based software suite, and more projects are starting and finishing virtually, rather than locally, XING appears to have as good a chance as any at integrating design houses, brick-and-mortar businesses, startups and commerce cornerstones.