LinkedIn Crosses 100 Mn Members Mark In India

Business and professionals networking platform LinkedIn has surpassed the 100 Mn members milestone in India. 

On this, Ashutosh Gupta, country manager of LinkedIn India, wrote a post stating that the Indian market is LinkedIn’s fastest growing in member engagement. Professionals use this networking platform for meaningful conversations, exchanging ideas and opportunities, and fortifying career paths via upskilling.

In a LinkedIn post, Gupta further shared that Indian users spent more than 4.6 Mn hours learning on the networking platform in 2022 alone. 

“With 50% of recruiters in the market already hiring for skills, this is a fortunate time for us to invest in this high-potential workforce through our focus on the skills-first way of work. To top that, the Indian government’s vision of a skilled India gives us another reason to continue moving ahead in this direction,” he added. 

Further, to help working professionals upskill themselves, LinkedIn announced that it is providing nine skill-based courses for free until March 15, 2023. 

The development has come at a time when social media giants are expecting to see a formulation of digital competition law to govern the sector. 

In January this year, industry body Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) called out the Centre’s report on anti-competitive practices of social media giants as prescriptive, absolutist and regressive in nature and shared that the digital competition law can lessen digital innovation in India. 

It further suggested that the Centre should carry out discussions with stakeholders before framing a new digital competition law and also hinted that the said laws can lead to over compliance.  

Besides this, the Bihar government recently ordered a temporary ban on access to 23 social media platforms in Saran district until today (February 8). The move was taken to maintain peace in the district following a house being set on fire by mobs in Manjhi area of Saran district.

Also, MeitY published draft amendments to the IT Rules 2021 mandated social media platforms to take down fake content flagged by the Centre’s fact-checking unit Press Information Bureau (PIB).  

While the central government is closely scrutinising social media intermediaries, on the flip side, government bodies can be seen joining hands with them to bolster the country’s startup ecosystem. One such example is the MeitY Startup Hub (MSH) which has lately partnered with social media giant Meta to shortlist 120 startups under the XR Startup Program. 

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