BL Interview. India is LinkedIn’s fastest-growing market in terms of member engagement: Hari Srinivasan

We’re building a skills-first hiring approach unlike anything that’s been done before; we’re creating a common skills language with our Skills Graph - real-time, actionable insights on the connections between jobs, skills, topics, and knowledge shared. The Skills Graph dynamically maps relationships between 40,000 skills, 930 million people, 63 million companies, and other organisations globally. We’re infusing skills into the entire hiring experience to make it work for everyone and it’s working. The Indian government’s focus on the development and upskilling of the youth has further encouraged usto accelerate our work towards our vision of creating a skills-first and equitable labour market. According to LinkedIn’s recent Future of Recruiting report, skills are going to be the driving factor in recruiting.  50% of recruiters in India are hiring candidates based on their skills.

We’re excited about generative AI and how we can use this new technology to help make our customers be even more productive and successful in their jobs. We have been testing AI-powered job descriptions, personalised writing suggestions, and collaborative articles to help members unlock unique opportunities and share knowledge with each other. Now, we’re also rolling out new AI-powered experiences, leveraging the most advanced OpenAI GPT models, as we continue to look for ways to create more value for our members and customers. With these new and upcoming product enhancements, we will continue to listen, learn and improve every day. We’ve recently introduced a new AI-powered feature, which will generate brief, cover letter-like messages that candidates can send to hiring managers on the platform. We’re also helping professionals keep pace with today’s rapidly digitising world of work as AI becomes mainstream. We recently launched 100 free AI-based LinkedIn Learning courses also reinforcing our efforts to build a skilled workforce.

India is our fastest growing globally in terms of member engagement. LinkedIn’s revenue in India is up 84% from FY20 and has grown nearly 4x over the past 5 years (from FY17 - FY22). India has some of the biggest global customers in the IT sector, e.g. TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Big Ed Tech players, and unicorn start-ups. We’re committed to supporting India’s skilling agenda through government partnerships and LinkedIn Learning Courses. Members in India spent over 4.6 million hours learning on the platform in 2022 – almost twice the global average. I am increasingly thinking about India and its needs. When we talk about skills, there is the issue of the languages and the certificates and credentials you need are different. So we’re spending a lot more time to understand that market. How do we make sure, for example, we offer standardised certificates? In terms of trends, we are seeing a lot of engagement with the student population. Student signups on LinkedIn are up 73 per cent YoY now.

In terms of R&D, we’re very lucky to have a team in India that gives us incredible insights and has a very special talent. The R&D centre in Bengaluru is a hub for technological developments with a large chunk of our development, community, and trust strategy being driven out of India for a global audience. As of 2023, 40.5 per cent of all Indian members on LinkedIn are Gen Z professionals. This has grown by 7.5 per cent YoY.

At LinkedIn, we know that authenticity is key to creating meaningful interactions and recently made LinkedIn Verifications mainstream for our members in the US. We’ve partnered with CLEAR, a secure identity platform, to provide verification for our LinkedIn members in the US. The free verification tool is a step towards making sure our members are engaging with verified and authentic individuals on the platform. We will bring this update to India in the next few months. We believe verification should be for everyone on LinkedIn, that’s why every feature will be available and free to all our members. Through all these new, free features, we’re helping give members the confidence that who they’re connecting with and the content they come across is trusted and authentic.