Today is bank holiday in Germany and I had some time to browse here and there on the Internet, and made what a surprise a quick pit stop at openblog archive. Whilst rereading this article I had a mini epihany: Why not answer the questions of this businessweek article from openBCs´perspective? There´s a chance that some of you want to know how openBC broke through. :)

So I took my chance to grab a relaxed Lars and interview him for you. I´ll blog his answers over the next few days to make it easier to read. Stay tuned!

How openBC Broke Through
openBC has almost reached the grand old age of two and a half, and has firmly established itself amongst the big boys in the professional networking world, with over a million active users and counting. Like its US-based siblings, its target group is broad, encompassing professionals of all ages and industries.

openBC’s business model is also based on a subscription service and firmly refuses to yield to advertising offers, despite advertisers being keen to tap in to the site’s high-potential user group. openBC is catching up fast, outstripping its competitors in terms of both growth rate and profitability.

Q: Why is social networking taking off right now?
Lars: There are an ever-growing number of people around the world who recognise the potential for connecting, exchanging and doing business with others over the net. Technology is enhancing by the day, enabling ever more ways to interact and stay connected online. And there are an increasing number of online users willing to pay for the added benefits provided by this social software. Online dating companies paved the way for this trend, proving the demand for digital service providers that bring people together. Relationships at work are changing and networks are becoming more important by the day, enabling professionals to manage and meet these new challenges.

Q: Are you folks making money?
Lars: We’ve been cash-flow positive since month 3 and have been earning money since day 1. We’ve taken care to learn from the lessons of the new economy. We made our business model clear to users from the start. We also observed how job advertising on many other networks had not really worked. Our business model has proved successful and other providers have since followed suit, charging users a fee to be able to contact other users.

Q: So you won’t be raising more money?
Lars: We were already net profitable before we received venture capital last year and are continuing to expand internationally on a daily basis, with acquisitions being made such as First Tuesday Zurich.

to be continued...