India fastest growing LinkedIn mkt
Mumbai: LinkedIn India has grown nearly 4X over the past 5 years from fiscal 2017 to 2022. This makes the country the fastest growing market for the $14-billion professional network, in terms of member engagement, across the world. LinkedIns revenues in India, which is its second-largest market after the US in terms of member engagement, is up 84% from FY20. In an exclusive interview with TOI, Feon Ang, LinkedIns MD for Asia-Pacific (APAC) said, India represents almost 50% of APAC members. For APAC, we have more than 254 million members and India has more than 100 million. The speed of growth is faster than anywhere else. India is getting a lot of attention.Job-seeking in India too is active with companies looking to the platform to hire, said Ang. Members in India tend to be a lot more active as compared to the global average.LinkedIns sources of revenue come from areas such as organisations using the platform for posting their jobs, small businesses buying recruiter seats, and its premium version. Three lines of business talent solutions, marketing solutions and all sales solutions contribute to its global revenues. At present, 80% of LinkedIns 900 million professionals are outside of the US. APAC accounts for around 15%, of which Indias share is said to be large.Even as global big tech companies are cutting down on manpower, Ang said LinkedIn continues to hire in critical roles. We are still seeing some success in certain sectors, she said. When asked to specifically comment on layoffs, Ang said so far there have been none. We constantly look at how we can manage our business better.With the global slowdown, like all companies, Ang said LinkedIn is a lot more cautious now. We have to be very careful in terms of how we invest. We are seeing a lot of success in India and we do believe that this country will continue to grow and the opportunities are there, she said.Two key trends that Ang sees playing out clearly are skills and flexibility. We see the rate of change for skills in a particular job changing quite rapidly. In the last four years, skills related to jobs has changed by 29%. By 2025, skills are expected to change by almost 50% in India, said Ang.A new research conducted by LinkedIn to mark its 20th anniversary, finds that professionals are embracing skills over degrees as a way to chart new career paths. As many as 76% of professionals in India agree there is less importance on degrees being a prerequisite for jobs as compared to two decades ago. A vast majority of Indian professionals (84%) believe that in the future employers will value professionals with diverse skill sets and experiences over those who are specialised in a certain job function. Companies are aware that skills are in demand, and that they might not be able to find talent if people are not quickly adapting to this concept of skilling. The second key concept is about looking at peoples potential rather than their degree. Its not about how smart they are but how capable are people in terms of learning and how adaptable they are and how willing they are to acquire new skills, said Ang.According to LinkedIns Labor Market Update (as of March 2023), India has on average 17 active applicants competing for each job opening. Professional services (40.5%), technology (20.1%) and manufacturing (10%) are the top industries that Indian Gen Zs are applying to (as of April 2023).How people engage on LinkedIn has evolved due to so many peoples personal and professional lives blurring during the pandemic. We are seeing more personal, vulnerable stories and conversations emerge but very much through the professional/workplace lens. We know there are a lot of challenges facing the workforce today. Weve seen that having an online professional community where people can go and support each other is incredibly valuable, said Ang.
Friday, May 5, 2023 at 1:30 am