LinkedIn Establishes Operations to Connect India’s Professionals

Mumbai, India and Mountain View, Calif. -- December 16, 2009 -- LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network with more than 55 million members globally and 3.4 million in India, today outlined its plans to connect India's professionals. The company has set up its initial offices in Mumbai at the Bandra Kurla Complex. 

"We are focused on connecting all of India's professionals to help them be more successful and productive," said Hari V. Krishnan, country manager of LinkedIn India. "By establishing a team here, we can drive brand awareness in India through strategic partnerships with media organizations and other distribution channels. Our marketing efforts will focus on education campaigns to drive user engagement with our collaboration, communications and business intelligence tools as well as adoption of our open platform by third party developers." 

To assist in driving these market development efforts, Nayan Patel has taken the role of director of operations at LinkedIn India. Until recently, Patel served as director of strategic partnerships for LinkedIn in Mountain View, Calif. He brings more than 15 years industry experience including positions with IBM, Yahoo! and Google, both in India and the U.S. 

To better engage with professionals in India, LinkedIn has also announced a co-marketing agreement with Network18 that initially includes integration of business and finance content from Moneycontrol on LinkedIn and community-generated content from LinkedIn on CNBC-TV18. The agreement is the first media partnership announced by LinkedIn in India and is a part of the company's strategy to growing brand awareness among professionals in the country. 

"We are excited to be working with Network18 and look forward to unveiling the results of our first joint poll later this week," said Krishnan. "We believe that driving the conversation around the issues important to the Indian professional workforce is critical to maintaining its continued growth in the global economy." 

About LinkedIn 
LinkedIn is an internet platform company focused on connecting the world's professionals. The company is privately held and has a diversified business model with revenues driven from user subscriptions, advertising sales and software licensing. The LinkedIn web site was launched in 2003 and is the largest professional networking site in the world with more than 55 million m embers representing 200 countries and executives from every Fortune 500 company. The company's worldwide corporate headquarters is based in Mountain View, Calif.