LinkedIn hits 200 million milestone, appoints new Asia Pacific MD

• Network reaches 200 million members worldwide
• Appoints Hari Krishnan as managing director for APAC 

PROFESSIONAL social network LinkedIn announced it has reached 200 million members worldwide, with new members joining at the rate of two per second.
 
Since its last announcement in November of last year, the company has added more than 13 million members.
 
In a blog post reflecting on the network’s growth, LinkedIn’s senior vice president of product & user experience, Deep Nishar, said the milestone was “more than just a metric.”
 
“It’s a reminder of the global footprint and the scale of impact our network has each day. Members come first at LinkedIn and we remain focused on creating economic opportunity for every professional in the world. We look forward to bringing the power of the LinkedIn network to many more professionals in the coming years,” he added.
 
Today, the network counts more than 160 million unique monthly visitors and since March 2011 has added 13 new languages, making the site available in 19 languages. According to comScore, it was the 23rd most visited Web property in the world for the month of November 2012 (including SlideShare).
 
Currently, more than 64% of LinkedIn members are located outside the United States, with over 37 million members in Asia Pacific.
 
New head for Asia Pacific

Prior to hitting its most recent member milestone, LinkedIn also announced the appointment of Hari Krishnan (pic), as the company’s managing director for Asia Pacific and Japan.
 
For his new role, Krishnan has relocated to the company’s regional headquarters in Singapore, and will be tasked with growing the network’s presence in the Asia Pacific region and reinforcing the company’s commitment to connect professionals.
 
Asia Pacific is currently one of LinkedIn’s fastest growing regions, with a footprint spanning 10 offices, over 350 employees, four Asian languages and a membership growth of 12 million over the last year.
 
“LinkedIn has grown tremendously in the Asia Pacific region over the past year, but we are still in the early stages of our expansion," said Hari.
 
“I look forward to working with our team to help growing numbers of professionals across the region leverage LinkedIn to network, build their professional brand, gain insights from the community and find new career and business opportunities," he added.
 
Krishnan joined LinkedIn in 2009 as the first employee in Asia-Pacific and has led the growth of LinkedIn’s presence in India, one of LinkedIn’s fastest growing markets.
 
He succeeds Arvind Rajan, who has moved into the role of managing director and vice president, New Markets, which will be focused on evaluating new market opportunities across the globe. 

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