LinkedIn hits 500 million members mark; India second largest global market

India continues to feature extensively in LinkedIn’s progress chart as the LinkedIn user base successfully crossed the 500 million members mark yesterday, an increase of 50 million since August 2016.

The Indian digital landscape is one of the most fertile for social media platforms, and LinkedIn is no exception. India represents more than 42 million members for the LinkedIn user base, witnessing a growth of around 40% in the past two years.

Throughout the world LinkedIn represents 10+ million active jobs, 9+ million companies and over 100,000 articles posted every week.

LinkedIn’s half a billion members are spread across more than 200 countries and territories across the globe with more than 118 million members coming from the APAC region. India represents 35.5% of the 118 million members from the APAC region and continues to be LinkedIn’s second largest market globally, after the United States of America.

“We are extremely proud to have achieved the 500 million member milestone globally. India is the largest member base outside the United States and continues to be among the fastest growing communities. To put this in perspective, it took seven years for the first 10 million members to sign up on LinkedIn in India; but the last 10 million members were added in a little over a year! We are confident that this positive trajectory will be aided by the roll out of LinkedIn Lite, LinkedIn’s first data-efficient mobile website, to all members in India today.” said Akshay Kothari, Country Manager and of Product, LinkedIn India

China and Australia are the second and third biggest markets in the APAC region, contributing 31 million and 8 million to the LinkedIn user base respectively.

In India, Gurgaon leads the way as the most connected city, averaging 319 connections, followed by metros Bangalore and Mumbai with 200 and 176.24 average connections respectively during a specific analysis duration from LinkedIn.

Highlighting the most connected industries and job functions across all markets such as United States, United Kingdom, China, Australia, Germany, France and Brazil, LinkedIn also revealed that ‘Staffing and Recruiting’ industry maintained dominance in terms of number of connection in India, followed by ‘‘Venture Capital and Private Equity’, with ‘Human Resources’ coming in at a close third.

These are the most connected industries on LinkedIn in India.

Staffing and Recruiting, and Venture Capital and Private Equity also emerged as dominant industries in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Brazil.

There are the most connected functions for LinkedIn in India.

As per LinkedIn, every connection of a professional on the platform reflects an average of 400 new people that one can get introduced to, and build relationships with, and encompasses 100 new companies who may be looking for the skills and talents that match one’s profile.