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Tag: Career Networking

  • LinkedIn India Reaches 15 Million Members

    LinkedIn India Reaches 15 Million Members

    LinkedIn’s India division has reached a new milestone: 15 million Indian professionals now use the social network. Over on the LinkedIn Blog, Hari Krishnan, country manager at LinkedIn India, described the company’s excitement at how quickly India has embraced LinkedIn. He states that LinkedIn India’s member base has grown 300% since the beginning of its operations. According to Krishnan, LinkedIn India’s quick growth has been due to the large scaling in operations that LinkedIn has performed in the country over the last three years. From the blog post:

    Our growth hasn’t been in terms of just member numbers alone. India is now the 2nd largest market for LinkedIn after the US. Over the last three years, we have also scaled up operations significantly. In addition to our Mumbai headquarters and two other offices, we have also launched a Technology Centre in Bengaluru, our first such facility outside of Mountain View, California. LinkedIn’s member base in India encompasses professionals and students at different stages in their career. It is individuals like these who are utilizing the various tools that help them engage with other professionals, gain insights and in turn grow their businesses or chart out their career path. The success stories of some of our members, have been outstanding. From acquiring overseas business to securing that dream job, Indian professionals from various industries have leveraged LinkedIn to further their career.

    Of course, Krishnan also mentioned the new mobile offerings that LinkedIn has been focusing on lately. He believes that LinkedIn India can help the country’s economy and will improve the career progression of professional Indians.

    15 million people is a good start, but when you consider that India’s population is greater than 1.2 billion people, it’s easy to see that LinkedIn still has a long way to go, and plenty of room to grow.

  • BranchOut Facebook App Raises $25 Million

    BranchOut, the Facebook app for business professional networking, announced today a $25 million Series C funding from Mayfield and others, bringing its total tally to $49 million. BranchOut has been around for about two years, and is similar to the business-oriented social network LinkedIn, though it relies of Facebook’s network.

    BranchOut users potentially have access to Facebook’s 800+ million users, as opposed to LinkedIn’s roughly 150 million users. And, soon after BranchOut released its mobile app, its user base jumped from 400,000 to 13 million, indicative of its viability as an alternative to LinkedIn. BranchOut CEO Rick Marini sees Facebook’s larger user base as affording a better selection in the types of careers available to pursue, also considering Facebook’s broad demographic. Marini states, “LinkedIn is somebody I meet at a conference for 5 minutes. Facebook are (sic) my real friends and family, my supply network. These are people who will go out of their way to help me get a job.”

    BranchOut is banking on the notion that since Facebook is a larger, more personal network, stronger personal business relationships can be forged, and with 800 million active users, more opportunity is present by default. Investors appear to agree, with the latest round of funding. Come to think of it, the whole point of LinkedIn’s lack of personability goes along the lines of the general and legitimate carrer environment in the U.S. What Marini mentions about BranchOut makes it sound like it would be more useful in finding a gig digging holes in a neighbors yard or something.

  • New Startup Aims to Meet Career Needs

    New Startup Aims to Meet Career Needs

    Although more and more businesses find value in social media, they are also finding challenges. For instance, many businesses struggle to keep their employees productive on social sites. Another challenge is the size of social networks. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have experienced enormous growth, which can often be hard for businesses to leverage.

    Incidentally, BranchOut is a new startup that hopes to provide a solution to these challenges. It is, essentially, a professional network within Facebook. BranchOut allows users to create connections with individuals at top companies, and it gives businesses the opportunity to professionally recruit, find leads, and more.

    Rick Marini, BranchOut’s founder and CEO, said, “It is truly your professional profile within Facebook.”

    Although BranchOut has been referred to as the LinkedIn for Facebook, Marini said that it is much more. As he explained, the startup offers a different experience since it brings a gaming feature as well as other “fun” features to the career market.

    Up to this point, BranchOut has been focused on the consumer experience. However, Marini pointed out that the next phase of the startup would be geared toward enterprises and would include advanced capabilities.

    “We’re really going beyond the consumer experience and trying to build true business tools for people to, hopefully, be able to change their lives,” he said.