beyondbrics

Most brands catch on quickly that Indians can be picky, whether it’s with signature saris or spiced-up fast foods. Now, social networking sites like LinkedIn are also going native to tap into a growing market of over 100m internet users and an even larger population of young job-seekers.

Analysts told beyondbrics the professional networking site’s strategy to localize its services was natural, if not inevitable, in India, which can otherwise be an unforgiving market – as evidenced by KFC’s faltering launch here in the mid-1990s.

“Going local will definitely be beneficial for LinkedIn,” said Kumar Parkala, COO of the advisory department at KPMG in India. “Most such sites entering India have undergone some degree of regionalisation, like offering services in [regional] languages or partnering with local mobile carriers to reach more customers.”

With differential pricing for certain newly-launched brand marketing and search services in India, LinkedIn is set to expand its main customer base – employers and recruiters – which at 13m users is about half that of its main domestic competitor, job portal Naukri.com.

“We launched in India in 2009, and since then we’ve received a lot of feedback to offer localized services,” Irfan Abdulla, head of hiring solutions at LinkedIn India told beyondbrics. “Previously all recruiters had to go to our global platform, but now we give them the flexibility to adapt to the local market’s need. Recruitment campaings tend to be local or regional in nature, so with our solutions… the number of recruiters getting empowered to find the right talent will be much higher.”

Analysts said the move, which is a global first for the recently listed US company, would benefit LinkedIn in the long run as India’s internet usage via smartphones was set to increase rapidly – it is projected to reach 237m by 2015, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

“In the long-run, sites like LinkedIn will find it too hard to resist India’s 729m mobile users,” Parakala said. “It’s a huge opportunity for LinkedIn, which continues to be a very popular site… and like its competitors, it will have to localise its services to fully exploit this market.”

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