LinkedIn strengthens Indian presence

LinkedIn Corporation, the company behind the world’s largest social network for professionals, says that it has opened up a research and development centre in India. The centre, based in Bangalore is the company’s first such office outside North America.

The centre will reportedly support the tech infrastructure used to build core products and features on LinkedIn.

According to the company, the decision was made to set up the centre, at least in part, to keep up with the rapid membership growth on the network. “India is one of the fastest-growing member bases in the LinkedIn network,” it said in an official blog post.

Despite the fact that only eight percent of India’s 1.2-billion strong population is online, it already boasts the third largest user base in the world behind China and the Unites States. That number is expected to grow exponentially in the next few years and LinkedIn is looking to take advantage of that.

Deep Nishar, one of LinkedIn’s senior vice presidents for the region says India accounts for 12-million of the social network’s 135-million strong user base.

This makes it the country with the second largest LinkedIn user base, after the US.

Aside from the large user base,the company cited a number of factors in explaining why opening up the centre in Bangalore was a natural choice.

Among these is the fact that the company’s Asia-Pacific (APAC) sales and marketing presence has been head-quartered in India since 2009.

According to Ganesh Krishan, head of the technology centre:

Opening a technology center in Bangalore allows us to be where are members are from a technology perspective and is a commitment to the region. With its rich technical talent pool and a profusion of high-tech companies, Bangalore is known as “The Silicon Valley of India.” So, this is a natural fit.

LinkedIn claims that the Bangalore centre will be used to help leverage LinkedIn as a globally relevant platform.

According Krishan, “LinkedIn’s Bangalore technology centre will augment our global development and operations teams, including the technical talent at our Mountain View headquarters.”

LinkedIn has given no indication of how much it is investing in the Indian centre.

The company, founded in 2003, with US headquarters in Mountain View, California already has over 70 employees in India, Spread between its sales office and the new technology centre. LinkedIn says it is looking to expand this number.