LinkedIn says it has 100 million members

SAN FRANCISCO
— LinkedIn said it reached 100 million members on Tuesday, as the
professional social-networking site grows to include nearly a million
teachers, dozens of Elvis impersonators and one “martini whisperer.”

The milestone comes as LinkedIn gears up for a
much-anticipated initial public offering that is expected to open the
floodgates for other social-networking sites.

In a company blog post, Chief Executive Jeff Weiner wrote, “We’re now growing at roughly one million new LinkedIn members
every week, the equivalent of a professional joining the site at faster
than one member per second.”

Mountain View, Calif.-based LinkedIn, which officially launched in May 2003, said more than half of its members, or 56 million, are based outside the United States. The company said it’s seeing its fastest growth in Brazil, Mexico, India and France.

In terms of jobs listed, LinkedIn said it counted
997,000 teachers, 1,030 chocolatiers and 74 Elvis Presley
impersonators, also identified by the company as “Elvis tribute
artists.” The site identified one “martini whisperer.”

“My guess would be a creative way to say bartender,” spokesman Hani Durzy said in an e-mail.

LinkedIn announced in January that it had filed a
registration statement for an initial public offering. The IPO is
expected to trigger a wave of offerings from other social-networking
sites, led by Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook, which launched in 2004, claims more than
500 million users, according to its website. The site reached 100
million users in 2008.

Another popular site, Twitter, said it had 175 million registered users as of September 2010.

In terms of monthly unique visitors, LinkedIn had 71.5 million in February 2011, up 55 percent from the year-earlier period, according to comScore.

Facebook had 676.7 million, a gain of 46 percent,
while Twitter had 112.2 million, up 61 percent. Meanwhile, MySpace had
about 60.9 million, down 43 percent year-over-year, according comScore.

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