LinkedIn has passed a significant milestone in the UK after the professional social network announced that it has now surpassed 10 million registered users in the country.
In a blog post announcing the news, Ariel Eckstein — managing director of the social network in EMEA — claimed that four in five professionals in the country have signed up to the service.
The UK had 3 million LinkedIn members in 2009 and, having hit the landmark figure, it is now its third largest market, behind the US and India.
“In less than three years, our membership has tripled. This is especially rewarding for me because it shows that professionals in the UK are finding value and relevance in LinkedIn,” Eckstein says.
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London is the most popular location for LinkedIn users, unsurprisingly, followed by Birmingham, Reading and Edinburgh. The National Health Service (NHS) is the top represented company — ahead of RBS, BT, HSBC and IBM — while ‘IT and Service’ is the most represented industry, the company confirmed.
This year hasn’t been an easy one for LinkedIn, which suffered a high-profile security breach in June, when 6.5 million hashed and encrypted passwords were dumped online by hackers. The firm had earlier been criticised for the way it collected data from iOS app users via its calendar function. An update later modified the feature to prevent full access to calendar-based notes.
LinkedIn says it has in excess of 175 million members across more than 200 counties. The company is based in the US but very much global, since 62 percent of its members are located overseas. Earlier this year, its userbase in India hit 15 million.
Image via Flickr / Mario Sundar
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