What I find extraordinary about this landmark for LinkedIn is the fact that they are a professional social media company. Their users are not posting funny pictures or figuring out what their weekend plans are. Instead, they are posting their resumes, sharing industry news, searching for potential jobs, and connecting with professionals within their field. Having this many users for a professional networking site is huge.
Why the sudden push of LinkedIn users? Mobile! Mobile marketing has become the focus of so many companies today. Not too long ago us, Internet Marketers were making a huge push for responsive design in order to adapt to mobile users. I am an active user of LinkedIn and the majority of my time spent on the site is via mobile devices.
According to Mashable, “LinkedIn expects that 50% of its user traffic will come via mobile by the end of 2014.” LinkedIn isn’t just thinking about what their next steps will be in the mobile game, they are well into taking action. Mashable also mentioned that LinkedIn has implemented a “company-wide training program referred to as “Mobilize,” which requires all of LinkedIn’s engineers to take weeklong iOS, Android and HTML5 training courses.”
While LinkedIn has achieved the 300 million mark, they are not stopping there. They are going to have to constantly invent new ways to expand company growth. Kiran Prasad, the senior director of mobile engineering at LinkedIn, is well aware of this idea. He has stated that mobile speed of the LinkedIn app is going to be a top priority. Users have short attention spans today, and just a few seconds of delay can instantly ruin the whole experience.
Along with the growth of mobile users, there is another factor contributing to the massive growth of LinkedIn. They have created a LinkedIn site in the Chinese language, expanding their company to one of the largest economy’s in the world. Of the 300 million users, 200 million reside outside of the United States. The focus on gaining Chinese users is a major move and should greatly help LinkedIn expand.
Maybe by this time next year we will see LinkedIn standing strong at the half a billion mark for users. What kind of factors do you think will influence the growth of LinkedIn in the coming year?
