The platform’s localised, members-first approach is winning hearts across the professional community in the country
LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with 562+ million members globally, today announced that it has crossed 50 million members in India. As LinkedIn’s fastest-growing and largest market outside the US, India has seen the member base grow from 3.4 million members in November 2009 to 50 million members today. The India member base has doubled in the past four years.
These 50 million members represent a diverse cross-section of industries, jobs, and skills, who interact every day on the platform and contribute to the largest talent marketplace in the world.
Speaking on this significant milestone, 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, localised approach has helped us cross the 50 million mark in India. We are at the beginning of an exciting journey, as we democratize opportunity for every member of the Indian workforce. As we go ahead, we will continue to focus on students, career starters, and professionals beyond knowledge workers.”
LinkedIn bets big on India’s ‘local’ approach
In India, LinkedIn has focused on a localised approach to democratize opportunity and connect professionals to make them more productive and successful.
LinkedIn’s ‘Made in India’ journey began with the launch of the lightweight mobile website in September 2016, followed by the launch of ‘LinkedIn Lite’ Android app in July 2017. The LinkedIn Lite Android App, a lightweight version of the flagship app, was built to provide opportunities to professionals in low connectivity areas and level the playing field for job-seekers everywhere.
Developed by LinkedIn’s R&D centre in Bengaluru, the first one outside Mountain View, Lite has witnessed unprecedented global success and its story is symbolic of the big bets that LinkedIn is taking to build global products out of India. The company recognises India’s strategic importance and is bolstering its efforts in the country to support the tech talent pool to innovate local solutions that can also be scaled and exported to other countries.
In less than a year after launching in India, Lite has quickly scaled to 135+ countries and supports 20+ languages. The intuitive member experience also led to the success of the app being ranked ‘No. 1 App of the year’ in the Social category on Google Play ‘Best of 2017’ annual list.
In May 2018, LinkedIn announced the pilot launch of ‘Resume Builder’ for its Premium members in India, a product feature that helps professionals create a visually compelling resume with ease. The success of this will be tested over the next few months and will expand to all members over the course of the year.
Furthering India’s agenda to upskill, bridge employment gap
LinkedIn’s “Economic Graph”, a digital representation of the global economy, is collected based on actions of millions of members, companies, jobs, and skills, and helps LinkedIn spot trends on talent migration, hiring rates, and in-demand skills by region. In India, the platform has used these insights to be a credible source of workforce data for the Government, economists, and academics, and is leading to charge in creating better economic opportunities for people.
To further the government’s ‘Skill India’ campaign to upskill people and bridge the education-to-employment gap in September 2017, LinkedIn partnered with IL&FS Skills to upskill and improve the employability of blue-collar workers in India.
Last month, LinkedIn signed a MoU with the Kerala Government’s Skill Mission to provide insights that will shape the skilling curriculum across state-funded skilling centres and help the Skill Mission to provide for demand-driven skills. With this partnership, 33 million people in the state of Kerala will benefit from the knowledge on skills and jobs in demand and migration trends, and prepare them for greater advancement and growth.
Empowering Indian professionals with news, views, and insights
LinkedIn continues to strengthen its editorial presence in India to provide the world’s professionals with the news and views they need to make them more professional and successful.
The various initiatives such as The Daily Rundown — a morning digest of the top news and trends professionals need to know to stay ahead — keeps members informed and encourages conversations around timely topics. Through original video content series ‘How I Got Here’ and ‘Second Innings’, produced in the LinkedIn video studio in Bangalore, the platform is bringing together industry leaders to share their stories, engage in rich conversations, and inspire professionals, students, and career starters. LinkedIn Lists such as Top Companies and Top Voices use the best of LinkedIn data to empower members with industry knowledge to make informed career decisions.
The Campus Editor Program brings student voices and perspectives to LinkedIn’s members worldwide. Ultimately, the Campus Editors are able to create opportunity for themselves and their peers through publishing on the platform.
LinkedIn continues to add new business leaders and renowned public figures to the LinkedIn Influencers list in India, with cricketer Sourav Ganguly being the newest entrant in March 2018. Narendra Modi, Priyanka Chopra, Sachin Tendulkar, and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw are some of the other names that are part of the list of prestigious 500+ global influencers comprising the world’s foremost thinkers and leaders, whose prolific professional journeys continue to encourage and motivate members.