Professional networking platform, LinkedIn has announced that the number of Indian users has crossed the mark of 5 crores. LinkedIn started its India operations in 2009 with 34 lakh users. The platform has a total of 56.2 crores users globally, India is amongst its largest market outside the US. Indian user base has doubled in the last four years on the platform, making India a growing market.
Akshay Kothari, Country Manager, India, and Head, International Product, Linkedin, said, “India’s current sentiment has elevated from “stable” to “positive”, giving way to a renewed faith in the country’s high growth potential. Our members-first, localized approach has helped us cross the 50 Mn mark in India.
LinkedIn will be looking to focus on students, career starters, apart from the professional knowledge workers.
LinkedIn focused on localization of content to make the platform more relevant in the Indian context. This was done by first introducing a lightweight mobile website in September 2016, which was followed by ‘LinkedIn Lite’ Android app in 2017. This helped LinkedIn to connect the users in remote areas with limited connectivity, thereby increasing its user base, along with providing people in remote areas with a platform to build a network and enhance their careers.
The app was developed by the R&D center in Bengaluru. Following the success of the app in India, it has since been launched in over 135 countries and supports over 20 languages.
Focusing further on localization, LinkedIn had announced the pilot launch of its ‘Resume Builder’ for premium users in India. This product will help the users create a professional resume with considerable ease. This product will be tested over a couple of months before it is rolled out for all the users.
LinkedIn has signed a MoU with the Kerala government Skill Mission to provide insights to help the state’s skill centers to devise a curriculum to include the demand-driven skills to help the youth of the state.
As per LinkedIn data, the top ten trending Indian companies in 2018 on LinkedIn include Flipkart, Directi, Paytm (One97 Communications), Amazon, Anheuser-Bush InBey, McKinsey & Company, Google (Alphabet), KPMG India, EY, and OYO.