LinkedIn has hit the 100 million user mark, almost eight years after launching. The company topped the century mark two months after filing for an IPO.
LinkedIn won't be mistaken for Facebook anytime soon, but
the professional social network crossed the 100 million member mark March 22
and is adding 1 million users per week.
LinkedIn launched in May 2003, which means it took almost eight
years to hit the century mark in users. Contrast that with Facebook,
which hit
the 100 million member mark in August 2008, or four and a half years
after it
launched in February 2004. The leading social network now has more than
600
million users.
Facebook's counterpart for the workforce has expanded its
offerings from helping users network and find jobs to helping recruiters groom
new hires and entrepreneurs start new businesses.
While becoming a LinkedIn member is free, the company
makes money from advertising, premium subscriptions and professional recruiting
services.
Under CEO Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn
filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange
Commission in January. The company
launched LinkedIn Today, which funnels relevant news users are sharing via LinkedIn
and Twitter.
Now the company is celebrating the century mark, culling
all sorts of factoids and stats about members and their profiles (anonymously,
of course) via this
infographic.
For example, LinkedIn calculated over 1.3 billion
connections between members; 79+ million job transitions/changes tracked; and
the fact that all of the Fortune 500 companies have executives on LinkedIn.
The latter stat speaks to the Website's reputation among working
professionals, setting it apart from the often fun, frivolous connections users
share on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social sites.
Also interesting to note that while 44 million of LinkedIn's
users are based in the United States, its fastest-growing countries in 2010 were Brazil,
Mexico, India and France. For example, the network sported a 428 percent
year-over-year membership growth rate in Brazil.
This is all part of the company's massive international
expansion plan, according to Weiner, who wrote in a
blog post:
"Our site is currently used in over 200 countries
and territories around the world, with more than half of our users coming from
outside of the U.S. You can now connect just as readily with someone in Sao
Paulo or Singapore as you can with your colleagues in San Francisco, London or
New York."
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