LinkedIn sees upward trend in adoption

Malaysia - LinkedIn marked its one million member milestone in Malaysia this week, reinforcing itself as the world's largest professional network with more than 187 million members worldwide, following the launch of its new site in Bahasa Malaysia language in 2011.LinkedIn now has achieved more than 34 million members in the Asia Pacific region, with India recording over 17 million members and Indonesia and Philippines recording one million each.According to Clifford Rosenberg (pictured), managing director Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia at LinkedIn, the milestone illustrates that Malaysians understand the economic opportunity that lies behind online professional networking."As our membership continues to grow, LinkedIn has become an avenue for Malaysian professionals to establish their online brand, gain insights, as well as find new business or career opportunities," he added.As a platform for brands, Rosenberg said that the professional network has seen some big brands in the country such as Air Asia, Microsoft and Malaysia Airlines use LinkedIn to reach out to consumers through LinkedIn's marketing solutions.It also has a self-served platform catered to small businesses that can target specific community groups and use their credit cards to purchase space and run campaigns."We want to make sure both large and small companies get the opportunity to participate. While it's all about targeting, we want to ensure that advertisers get value for money and puts their ads where it is targeting the right people," added Rosenberg.Whether the network is doing more in getting more local users, Rosenberg says that it does not do a lot of advertising and marketing, as that is done via its members."Our member proposition adds much value to professionals as they share their own experiences with communities. They build their professional profile and brand, network, and gain and share insights and information via the platform."If it's working well for them, they'll share that with colleagues and other professionals and virally that's how today we gain two new members every second," added Rosenberg.In the third quarter of this year, LinkedIn recorded revenue of US$252 million, of which marketing solutions represented 25% of the total revenue.Revenue from talent solutions represented 55% of total revenue and premium subscriptions represented 20%.