LinkedIn Now in 3 New Languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, and Korean
Update: We asked why LinkedIn has decided to go with Indonesian, Bahasa Malaysia, and Korean first. And here’s the team’s take:
" Malaysia, Indonesia and Korea represent a huge growth area in Asia and we’re tremendously excited to help millions of local professionals establish their professional identity and network. The addition of three new languages is the latest step in our strategy of making LinkedIn a more relevant experience for our growing professional member base around the world. We believe there is a lot we can learn from our local members that will also benefit our global member base."
LinkedIn has also provided us with the user breakdown in the respective countries:
・More than 800,000 professionals in Indonesia
・Nearly 300,000 professionals in Korea
・Nearly 700,000 professionals in Malaysia
LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) already has more than 135 million users worldwide, 20 million of whom are in Asia. After opening its Singapore and Japan offices, LinkedIn continues to push hard to be a truly globalized company by today introducing three more local languages in Asia — Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, and Korean.
With the additional of these three new localizations, it makes LinkedIn available in 14 different languages. In fact, Arvind Rajan, MD and VP for Asia Pacific and Japan, actually blogged about the news on the official LinkedIn blog yesterday. He commented:
"The launch of the local languages will better support the growing number of professionals joining LinkedIn. Local language availability often precipitates a whole new generation of LinkedIn members locally, enhancing the experience for the entire community. The member base in Asia Pacific is growing and we believe LinkedIn has a massive opportunity for growth here."
For sure, Asia has massive opportunities for any company who cares to localize. And I’m particularly pressing hard to find out when LinkedIn is going to introduce Chinese on its platform. But of course, LinkedIn hasn’t revealed anything whenever I’ve asked the team that question before.
Meanwhile, its competitor in China, Tianji, recently told us that its professional network is growing very quickly, picking up 100,000 new users each month in the middle kingdom alone.
Assuming that LinkedIn’s growth isn’t as strong as Tianji’s, that news must have given LinkedIn some pressure to structure a proper growth plan in China. So it is safe to assume that LinkedIn – one of the very few foreign social network sites to not be blocked there – is studying China very closely. But when it will execute its plan is still a mystery.
Anyway, rejoice for Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia – have fun with the new localized LinkedIn site. That also makes me wonder if Singapore will have a localized LinkedIn built on Singlish. Unfortunately, I don’t think so!
