LinkedIn is growing in APAC
 
LinkedIn now has more than 50 million users in the Asia Pacific region, and counting. Last year alone, LinkedIn gained over 7 million new users in India, and over 2 million in Australia and New Zealand. This growth is apparent across the whole region, with nine Asia Pacific countries now boasting more than a million members each: India (24+ million), Australia (5+ million), China (4+ million), Indonesia and the Philippines (2+ million each), Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and New Zealand (1+ million each).
 
It’s hard to believe that LinkedIn’s first move into Southeast Asia only began a mere 3 years ago with the opening of its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore.
 
LinkedIn has also made changes to the site to make it more Asia Pacific-friendly, allowing members to choose between 6 Asian languages to use creating a growing list of Asia-based influencers. These influencers include Tony Fernandes (Group CEO, AirAsia), David Thodey (CEO & Executive Director, Telstra), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon) and Nobuyuki Idei (Founder & CEO, Quantum Leaps, and Former Chairman & CEO, Sony).
 
And LinkedIn’s strategy appears to be working, with social media usage within recruitment on the rise, particularly amongst those looking to source suitable candidates for leadership positions.
 
LinkedIn Trends across the Region
 
The region’s users stem from a wide range of industries, the top five industries being IT services, telecommunications, Oil & Energy, Banking & Financial Services, and Hospitality. With such diversity within the region, unsurprisingly the LinkedIn habits across Asia Pacific vary greatly too.
 
A typical breakdown of the region appears as follows:
 
Singapore: Recruiters within this country tend to have a deeper understanding of social media, with recruiters using services such as LinkedIn more frequently and effectively when sourcing for candidates compared to other APAC countries. From a total population of 5 million, more than 1 million are now LinkedIn users!
 
Japan: With Japan’s professional culture valuing the attributes of being discreet and modest, LinkedIn’s self-promotional, and occasionally brazen, appearance could be contributing factor as to why LinkedIn is not as prominent in this area. The corporate culture of Japan also encourages company loyalty and the idea of staying with one company for the entirety of one’s career.
 
Australia and New Zealand: Employer brand positioning and community development appear to be the main focus for residents here.
 
China: Here, LinkedIn is not alone in the professional networking market, with fierce competition from Chinese-owned sites like Tianji, which offer unique features such as compensation comparison tools and the ability to use emoticons. LinkedIn is considering further expansion into China, but have been cautious due to the Chinese government’s previous actions in blocking Facebook, Google and others in the name of censorship.