Soon after Twitter claimed that its monthly user count had hit 500 million, another major social networking site has announced fresh figures of its user database.
LinkedIn, the world´s biggest professional social network, announced that it had reached the 200 million mark in its global user base, doubling since March 2011. Numbers have been growing fast over the past year, with some 13 million people joining since November. This means that two new members have signed up every second.
Almost one in three LinkedIn members come from the US, statistics showed, but the uptake of the site is growing globally, with emerging markets recording significant growth. Turkey, Colombia and Indonesia are the top three countries in terms of growth in LinkedIn members. At present, about 11 million Britons have profiles on the site.
Deep Nishar, product and user experience senior vice president at LinkedIn, wrote in a blog post that LinkedIn users come from more than 200 countries, accessing the platform available in 19 different languages. He described the 200 million mark as an “exciting milestone for the company”. Nishar also used the blog post to thank all LinkedIn members who have helped to build the community into what is has become today.
Members can use their LinkedIn profiles to share things such as their educational qualifications and work experience, which appear in reverse chronological order. They can list interests and link to any websites they might have, thus giving potential employers a better insight into what they can do and have been doing in the past.