Professional social-networking site LinkedIn has reached a milestone: the site now has more than 100 million users.
To put that number in perspective, it's half of the number of registered accounts on Twitter and a fifth of Facebook's population.
Launched in 2003, LinkedIn says it's now used in more than 200 countries. In fact, more than half of its user base comes from outside the U.S. According to a blog post, 44 million users come from the states, while 56 million come from other countries. The service is expanding the fastest in Brazil, where it grew by 428 percent in the last year. Mexico has the second-highest growth rate, where the service grew by 178 percent.
eBay, Amazon, Apple, and Cisco are among some of the companies most represented on the networking site, based on the percentage of employees with active LinkedIn accounts, the blog post says. The service industry is one of the most common sectors on the site, comprising 20 percent of accounts. Finance and high tech both have a strong presence on LinkedIn; each of these industries make up nine percent of profiles on the site.
It's been a big year for LinkedIn. The company filed for IPO in January. Information like the number of shares that will be offered and the price range for the offering has not yet been disclosed. However, the filing revealed that for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2010 (the most recent data) LinkedIn was profitable, with a net income of $10.0 million on revenue of $161.4 million.
Although more information about the IPO hasn't been revealed yet, one thing is certain: LinkedIn is growing steadily. At the end of 2009, the site had 55 million users. By the close of 2010, LinkedIn reported 90 million users, and that number has already increased by 10 million.