14 DAY TRIAL // Social networks haven't exactly lost their image as teen hangouts but these days teenagers are hardly the dominant population on any social network including Facebook or MySpace. And there isn't a greater example of how social networks are going mainstream than LinkedIn, a social network dedicated to professionals. The site has been seeing steady growth and has now reached 50 million users worldwide.
“While 50 million is an important milestone, we’re even more excited about how our members are using the site. Around the globe, people turn to LinkedIn to create and manage their professional identities online. They reconnect with former colleagues and develop new relationships, enabling them to create and collaborate with a network of trusted individuals. Every day professionals use LinkedIn to define themselves —and their businesses — to the world,” Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn CEO, wrote.
The growth rate hasn't been as spectacular as Facebook's or Twitter's but that's to be expected for a site this size. Still, it is accelerating as it took a year and four months to reach its first million in 2004 compared to the 12 days it took to reach the last million. Of course having 50 million registered users isn't the same as having 50 million people actually using the site and the traffic numbers are roughly half that, with 20 million unique visitors worldwide in August, up from 18 million the month before that.
The site's users are also more spread out than your typical social network, which usually has great percentage of users in the US. In fact, US visitors make up roughly half of the site's traffic, reaching 9 million in September, up from 8.7 million in August, according to comScore numbers. About half of LinkedIn users are from outside of the US, with 11 million in Europe alone. India is currently the fastest growing country and the social network already has 3 million users there. LinkedIn has been profitable for several years and there are talks of an IPO though the company claims there are no plans yet.