Making the right global connections

Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn Corp, said China represents one of the largest market opportunities for the company. [Provided to China Daily]

China is the key market for growth to take LinkedIn to next level, CEO says

Jeff Weiner has been determined not to hand out business cards ever since he joined LinkedIn. But that has not stopped LinkedIn Corp, the company he heads, from creating a steadily growing network of "knowledge workers", something that most experts feel will tip the scales in the global quest for talent.

Though he does not hand out business cards, Weiner is not shy about sharing his contact details. The chief executive officer of LinkedIn believes that those who want to know about him or learn about millions of other "knowledge workers" can easily do so by tapping into the company's online platform. LinkedIn offers details about educational background, career path, professional achievements and published work of professionals from all over the world, he said.

Terming the California-based Internet company as the "world's largest network for professionals", Weiner likens the New York Stock Exchange-listed LinkedIn as a comprehensive professional service, which includes a mixture of an online contact book, curriculum vitae and a publishing platform for anyone wanting to make his or her way in the world of work.

Weiner justifies his claims of being the largest professional network in the world by pointing to the steadily growing membership base of over 313 million and revenue of over $2 billion. That compares with a membership base of 33 million and revenue of $78 million when he joined the company in 2008. LinkedIn is available in 23 languages, 30 cities and in 17 countries, he said.

"Our vision is to make LinkedIn the world's first economic graph, which is essentially a digital mapping of the global economy. China is a market we cannot afford to miss as it represents one of the largest opportunities that we have in the world," said Weiner

Explaining the advantages of LinkedIn, Weiner said that its biggest contribution has been in the way that people find jobs and how employers find the right candidates through a global online network. The real goal, he says is to transform this network into an economic graph.

"Our vision is to create economic opportunities for every member of the global workforce. There are still over 3 billion people in the global workforce. We would like every member of the global workforce to have a profile on LinkedIn and for every company also to have a profile on our platform. We also want to have a digital presence for every job made available by these companies."

Highlighting the importance of the digital presence, Weiner said: "Our aim is to have a digital presence for all the requisite skills needed to retain the jobs and to have a digital presence for all higher education organizations that offer the required training and skills needed to get the job.

"We want individuals, companies and universities to be able to share their relevant professional knowledge on LinkedIn, if they would like to do so. We want to step back and allow the free flow of all types of capital, be it intellectual, working or human capital, and in doing so help transform the global economy."

A few years ago, such a vision would have been dismissed as a dream. "It is not a dream or science fiction but actual science now," he said. This is because the six dimensions－members, companies, jobs, skills, higher education organizations and relevant professional knowledge－all exist on LinkedIn. "It is just a matter of time and continuing the process till we reach the scale that we want to achieve," said Weiner.

Scale is an inherent advantage that LinkedIn already has, Weiner said. "We are the largest platform of this kind in the world. The current scale and critical mass create very strong advantages, especially in terms of achieving our economic graph vision. There may be other local players, but they are not going to have the kind of regional or global presence and the size that we have," he said when asked about competition in China.

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