India second largest market for LinkedIn, crosses 100 million users

Microsoft-owned professional networking platform LinkedIn today announced that it has reached 100 million users in India, making the country its second largest market after the US. This comes after a 56% increase in membership for LinkedIn over the past three years, the company said.

Further, the company said that software and information technology (IT) professionals make up the largest base of its members in the country. Manufacturing, corporate services (including consulting, accounting, and human resources), financial services and academia, are the other top sectors for LinkedIn in India.

It also claimed that more than half of India's LinkedIn recruiters use skills data from the platform to fill their posts, which is higher than the worldwide average of 45%, as employment and career pathways grow increasingly non-linear.

To be sure, while LinkedIn does fall in the social media space, the company doesn't have much competition — neither in India nor globally. For instance, following a series of layoffs in the Silicon Valley in recent months, a platform called Blind has emerged as a viable alternative to Microsoft's LinkedIn. But that platform, too, differs from LinkedIn in that it's meant for workers to discuss their workplace anonymously, leading to more frank talks about the organisations in question, reported CNN on January 31.  

Thousands of Microsoft employees joined the professional networking site Blind in the week leading up to the company's public announcement of plans to cut 10,000 jobs.