L

inkedIn is gaining a foothold in Indonesia, a social-media addicted country that sits in the upper rungs of Facebook and Twitter in terms of user numbers.

LinkedIn head of communications for India and Hong Kong, Deepa Sapatnekar, said that networking was inherent in Indonesia'€™s culture, which placed importance on community ties.

'€œThat aspect has helped LinkedIn a lot. Also, there is this need of creating a professional record,'€ she said.

According to Sapatnekar, the number of Indonesian LinkedIn users had reached 3 million as of July, a sharp rise from the 700,000 users in December 2011 when the professional networking site released a Bahasa Indonesia version.

In terms of volume, India is ahead with approximately 27 million users, followed by Australia and Singapore with roughly with 6 million and 3 million users.

'€œHowever, Indonesia, besides India, is one of the fastest in terms of growth,'€ she said.

She pointed out that globally, LinkedIn has about 313 million members, with more than 3 billion endorsements having been given out. Those connected to a LinkedIn user can endorse, or vouch, for a certain skill the user has.

In addition, there are 3.5 million active profiles belonging to companies and 300,000 job openings having been posted via LinkedIn.

LinkedIn monetizes through profiles that upgrade from the basic, gratis profiles to premium ones which offer added benefits.

Recruiters point out that they do use premium accounts that provide features, such as the ability to see more profiles, tailored for those wanting to hire.

'€” Mariel Grazella