LinkedIn to reach out to a larger population in India by adding Hindi to network
LinkedIn has not been able to penetrate into a larger section of the Indian population who doesn’t speak or write English
When it comes to social networking, local languages play a major role in their success. It has been proved by some of the largest social media platforms over the years.
But then, LinkedIn seems to have been late in its realisation. English is the language on which LinkedIn rides. Though the largest professional social network when it comes to global terms, LinkedIn has had limited reach among the Indian population.
LinkedIn has less penetration among Indian population
And the reason for this may be attributed to its English-only existence. India’s population numbers stand at 1.3 billion people, and among them, only 20 percent speak English. That also means that LinkedIn has failed in penetrating into a larger section of the population which doesn’t speak or write English.
This is now on change mode. The Microsoft-owned company has finally decided to offer support for Hindi, the language spoken by a predominant majority of Indians. With Hindi spoken and understood by over half a billion people in India and over 600 million globally, the language will become the first Indian regional language supported by the LinkedIn network.
Soon, LinkedIn will give Hindi speaking users the option of allowing its Hindi users access the professional social network on mobile, desktop platforms and create content in the Indian language. Messaging in Hindi will also be enabled.
Hindi latest entrant in LinkedIn regional languages
As every LinkedIn user is aware, the network supports 25 languages. And, Hindi becomes the latest entrant, and India’s first local language.
LinkedIn’s India penetration has been abysmal, with the country accounting for just 6 percent of more than 1.3 billion visits recorded every month. It has been reported that India is home to 82 million LinkedIn users, and among them over 20 million are the ones who joined in the past three-year period. Compared with this number, the global LinkedIn user count stands at more than 800 million.
Ushering Hindi into the network could help LinkedIn a great deal. Writing, and messaging in Hindi come easy to a major section of the Indian population, and it could prove to be a big leap for the professional social network in the coming days.
If things look rosy for LinkedIn’s Hindi foray, the professional social network could bring in a slew of features too for the Indian user base. That could include a wider range of employment opportunities for Hindi speaking professionals across industries.
