Introduction
LinkedIn, now, has become the go-to platform for professionals, aspiring job seekers, and those looking for a change in their current job scenarios. Although there are several social platforms available, LinkedIn has made its special name in the professional domain. According to latest LinkedIn statistics there are more than 1 Billion members on the platform.
With its presence spread across more than 200 countries and regions of the world, nearly 65 Million people use the platform each week to search for jobs. This is not what we are saying, but rather statistics, compiled after extensive surveys and research done on LinkedIn by market leaders.
The following article covers insights from user demographics to revenue, content preferences of users, and even facts about the backbone of LinkedIn, i.e. its workforce. In the end, the attitude of Gen Z towards LinkedIn is also discussed, and what the platform is doing to tackle the increasing rate of fraud, scams, bullying, and adult content over the platform.
User Demographics
Quarterly Users
Looking at this line graph, it can be seen climbing steadily with just a few, ignorable, dips as the years went by suggesting a continuous growth in the user base. It’s interesting to note that since its launch in 2003, it took nearly 15 years for the platform to hit the 500 million benchmark and just 6 years more to gain another 500 million.
Region and Country
North America dominates with the most users (nearly 23%) of the total user base and Southern Asia stands at the second place. The Caribbean, Middle Africa, and Central Asia contribute the least while the different regions of Europe have an average participation.
A look at the country-wise distribution of users provides a neat justification for the above chart. The United States, India, and Brazil are the top three countries with the largest users. The number against the U.S. is no surprise looking at its dominance in the tech domain.
Age and Gender
If we look at the chart which shows the age groups within which the LinkedIn users fall as well as their distribution based on gender, we can gather some interesting facts. First, most users are in the age group of 25-34 which is obvious considering the professional outlook of the platform.
Although the young ones, 18-24, contribute significant numbers, the platform is less exposed compared to other social platforms for entertainment like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and others.
Clearly, in all the age groups the presence of males is a bit higher and we will not go into the reasons for the same, for reasons well known.
Education, Income and Community
More detailed research carried out for parameters like education, community, income, and others, reveals other interesting statistics. More than half (53%) of college graduates are over LinkedIn and this number drops sharply as the qualification too goes down.
A similar trend is observed when looking at the numbers for income distribution. The rich (here, with income more than $100,000) dominate the platform, and as the paycheck and zeroes become less, so does the penetration of LinkedIn.
The dominant group in the community, age group, and gender categories are suburban, 30-49 years old, and men respectively.
Revenue
These numbers are the annual revenue of LinkedIn from 2017 to 2023. Note that here year represents the fiscal year which ends on June 30. For the fiscal year 2023, the platform made more than $15 Billion in revenue.
Also, after the acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft in June 2016, readers may doubt whether these numbers refer to LinkedIn’s revenue or have other hidden factors. To assure everyone, the revenue is taken from the official 10-K form filled by Microsoft where the revenue for each segment was mentioned separately, including LinkedIn.
Traffic Referrals
If we look at the traffic that lands over the linkedin.com then, nearly 15% comes from websites falling in the jobs and employment category. People on the lookout for jobs, increasing their brand awareness, and even hiring managers, all have an active presence on the platform.
As an Instagram profile is a sneak peek at your personal life, similarly LinkedIn profile has taken the work of opening doors for your professional self. It has become a standard for people to include their LinkedIn profile in their work resume.
Moreover, software, programming, computer electronics, and technology websites also contribute significantly to bringing traffic to linkedin.com.
In the portion of total traffic to linkedin.com that comes from social media channels, we have one player as the sole winner. Of the total 64 social platforms considered, YouTube has a share of nearly 41% of all the traffic. Other prominent platforms are Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp Web and Instagram.
Note that all these numbers only refer to the desktop traffic to linkedin.com.
Ads Overview
This chart in particular describes the enormous power these social platforms have. The first bar tells that nearly 12.7% of the world’s population can be reached by running an ad on LinkedIn. The same number for Instagram and TikTok was 20.4% and 19.3% respectively.
These stats are important for brands and marketers as these platforms have enough people engaged with them and a correctly targeted ad can work wonders for the company. More than 19% of total internet users can see your ad and that number is in Billions.
With each quarter the number has risen and finally crossed the Billion benchmark in Jan 2024. The platform has the potential to display ads to a billion (i.e. followed by nine zeroes) people and this number is surely to rise in the coming future. As we will see later, the rising interest of Gen Z in LinkedIn is fruitful for all; LinkedIn (obviously), employers, and employees.
For Marketers
B2B Marketers
*Question: Which of these organic social media platforms deliver the best value for your organization? Select up to three.
When asked the above question B2B marketers, their response made LinkedIn a standalone winner, and that too a win by a margin of 50%. Facebook, the largest social media platform, could gain the confidence of just 29% of B2B marketers, which is; surprising, considering FB’s 2 Billion user base, and convincing, as its primary focus of building social connections aka friends.
*Question: Please indicate how your organization’s use of the following organic social media platforms has changed over the last 12 months.
The same is relevant from this graph where B2B marketers increased the use of LinkedIn by 72% in the past year. It’s interesting to note that nearly 30% stopped using X as their preferred platform for marketing.
Maybe they took Elon Musk’s “Go F**K Yourself “ too seriously. The majority of the marketers also do not use TikTok, whereas just 2% of them are unaware of LinkedIn.
Platform For Posting Videos
*Question: On which social platforms does your organization post videos? Select all that apply.
When asked where they prefer to post videos, marketers were sure not to miss YouTube, the social platform dedicated to videos. However, among the left-out ones, LinkedIn was the second top choice with Facebook and Instagram also lingering not too behind.
Shockingly, TikTok, the platform that made short-form videos a daily part of our lives, is far too behind the big players. However, seeing its age (just 8 years) it’s still doing well standing with the oldies and the stats may change in the future as TikTok matures.
Technology Marketers
*Question: Which of these organic social media platforms deliver the best value for your organization? Select up to three.
For technology marketers too, they get most value from LinkedIn, understandable from the increased opportunities in the tech sector. People hover over LinkedIn searching for new opportunities and quitting their present boring job for another boring one.
Content Preferences
There are several articles/blogs on LinkedIn by experts in fields, spreading knowledge about the latest innovations in their sector and what the future might look like. No doubt, nearly 80% of people keep themselves updated with industry news through LinkedIn.
Moreover, more than half a percentage of people agree that LinkedIn helps them build relations (professional) with colleagues and also improves their reputation.
Click vs. Share
Not only are people involved in consuming different content types (indicated by the blue bar i.e. click), but they also actively share this content with other people. For knowledge, they prefer research, the latest news of their industry, and also refer to case studies. The click and share rate is comparable in all three content types.
While making an important decision, people refer to content that gives some career advice or any blogs published by prominent leaders themselves. Although people share those blogs, they become choosy in sharing career advice. No worries, we all are covetous when it comes to money and love.
Methods Of Sharing Content
Furthermore, upon sharing, around 65% responded that it helps them increase their visibility and reputation on the professional platform. Also, 49% believed that sharing content positions them as a thought leader.
The use of the ‘like’ button was the most popular method to share content obviously because of its ease, while people also shared efficiently using commentary on posts. Just a few people use mail for sharing content.
Gen Z and LinkedIn
Of all the people on Earth now, Gen Z is the most inclined towards social media and technology, no doubt they were the first generation to be digitally connected from birth. No surprise they constitute 10% of all the users on LinkedIn.
Around the world when asked what Gen Zs feel about LinkedIn, 80% stated that they feel confident using the platform and trust it. Another 70% accepted that the content they consume on LinkedIn is relevant to them.
Gen Z is more inclined to know technical domains like web dev, programming languages, spreadsheets, and others. However, as you grow, preferences and roles change, which is depicted here. Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers focus more on learning management, leadership, and personal productive skills.
A quick look at the top courses preferred by Gen Z on LinkedIn Learning reveals the same with digital tools courses; like Excel, Power BI, Python, Tableau, and others, attracting the most users. Learn more about the free courses available for social media marketing here.
Workforce Diversity Stats
LinkedIn publishes its workforce diversity report for each year and the above charts represent the same for the fiscal year 2023. “Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging” have always been the core values of LinkedIn and it has put efforts for the same, making the workplace equitable for everyone.
Asians and Whites make up most of LinkedIn’s workforce (nearly 80%) while there is a recognizable representation of Latinos and Blacks as well. Discussing the work they do, the Asians manage most of the Tech work for LinkedIn while most Whites fall under the roles of non-tech and leadership.
Latinos and Blacks have almost the same percentage of people working in the non-tech and leadership sectors. According to the same report, people with disabilities make up 5.8% of the workforce in the U.S.
The other graph depicts that overall males are just a few percentages more than females. However, the work roles have significant differences with the tech sector dominated by men and non-tech by women.
Note that the percentages do not add up to 100 as that represents the employees who did not disclose their gender (0.8% overall).
The report also talks about the awards and recognitions received by LinkedIn such as Latinas In Tech Company of the Year, Forbes’ Best Employers for Diversity 2023, and others.
Top On LinkedIn
Pages
The top pages on LinkedIn have followers in millions with Google and Amazon, with more than 30 million followers, competing closely for the top spot. LinkedIn itself ranks third with a quarter of a million followers. It’s interesting to note that these pages are of different domains and not just the tech sector as some might have guessed.
Profiles
Bill Gates is far ahead of other personalities on LinkedIn in terms of followers. Not only Microsoft’s owner but its CEO, Satya Nadella, and LinkedIn’s former CEO, Jeff Weiner, too hold a strong position on the platform.
The diversity in profiles comprising business tycoons, former CEOs, authors, and others, speaks for the professional footprint LinkedIn currently has.
Hashtags
These hashtags have the most followers on LinkedIn and including them in your post will surely help to increase their reach and visibility. Although people rush to put as many hashtags in their posts, it’s important to use those that are most relevant and specific to first, not make your post look like spam, and second, reach the target audience.
Community Report
As the popularity of a social platform grows so does the false and misleading information circulating there. To make LinkedIn a respectable and trustable platform for all, there are Professional Community Policies and User Agreement. Content and accounts that violate these come under the radar and are reconsidered or even removed if found violating these policies.
Over time, the company produces the data for actions it has taken in the last six months. This data is compiled in charts below which makes it easier for readers to visualize it and also see the performance of LinkedIn with time.
Fake Accounts
*Note: Number represents fake accounts stopped at registration.
According to LinkedIn, 90.1% of fake accounts were stopped using automated defenses, and the remaining 9.9% through manual investigations.
Spam And Scams
*Note: Number represents content removed proactively by LinkedIn.
Spam and scams on LinkedIn include sending multiple invites or engaging in inappropriate commercial activity, usually to gain financial profits. Almost 99.6% of the content was removed through automated defenses and the rest manually.
Violating Community Policies
*Note: Number represents the total content removed which falls into the different categories of; harassment and abusive, misinformation, violent or graphic, hateful or derogatory, adult and child exploitation.
There is a dramatic rise in the violated content removed from the platform in the second half of 2020 and interestingly this coincides with the time of Corona outbreak in the world. This can mean two things; first, either people became more abusive and toxic, or second, LinkedIn massively improved its defense against such content.
Let’s vote for the second one.
Copyright Content
*Note: Number represents the reported infringements removed. This is different from the actual infringements reported.
We can see a sharp fall in the copyright content removed after 2019 and that maintained to date. Moreover, from 2018 the accepted percentage (i.e. reported v/s removed) was always more than 95% even reaching 100% in the early years. However, in the first half of 2023, the percentage accepted was just 59%.
Government Requests
The governments of various countries request members’ data and also remove specific content. All social platforms make this data public owing to their commitment to free speech and transparency.
The chart above compares the government. requests for data by the U.S. and other countries. Up till 2018, it was the U.S. requesting most data and other countries seemed silent. However, as LinkedIn became popular globally, their share increased but still, the U.S. comprised half of those requests.
Conclusion
In the end, it can be said that today LinkedIn has built a name for itself in the professional world. It plays a vital role in job searching, making connections, and having industry insights. LinkedIn’s user base spans across different demographics and not only does it care about them, but also its employees.
The platform understands its commitment to community and society and works hard to make LinkedIn a place of respect for all users. With its present scenario, the future of LinkedIn looks optimistic and is sure to shape the future of professional networking and employment trends.
FAQs
According to the latest report, there are 1 Billion+ users on LinkedIn.
More than 67 Million companies are present on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn surpassed $15 Billion in revenue for the first time in Q4 FY23.
Gen Z makes up 10% of LinkedIn’s total audience.
According to LinkedIn, 65 million people use the platform to search for jobs each week.
Sources
1 LinkedIn Usage and Revenue Statistics (2024) – Business of Apps
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7 Form 10-K for Microsoft Corp filed 07/27/2023 (gcs-web.com) Pg 95
8 linkedin.com Traffic Analytics, Ranking Stats & Tech Stack | Similarweb
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Debbie Moran is a Digital marketing strategist with 5+ years of experience producing advertising for brands and helping leaders showcase their brand to the correct audience. She has been a part of RecurPost since 2019 and handles all the activities required to grow our brand’s online presence.