LinkedIn, the fast growing business-oriented social networking site, has seen a noticeable lift-off in African markets as business professionals adapt to social media. Couple to this anecdotal evidence that users of social services like Facebook are trying to shift business contacts and bosses from the rather informal ‘social’ social network to something that’s more professional and offers just a little bit of extra distance. The economy also helps of course as people look for tools that might connect them to jobs. All this makes sense of the LinkedIn surge. Globally the network is signing up around 2 new members every second.
Habari Media, the sales partner for LinkedIn in Africa, is experiencing an increase in commercial interest in the site as well. 
Currently LinkedIn has 161 Million members worldwide of which 1.9 million are in South Africa. The tally for members from Africa comes to more than 5.89 million.
Other significant markets in terms of the number of users includes Nigeria (672 610 registered users), Egypt (556 335), Kenya (407 827), Morocco (362 683), Algeria (294 345) and Ghana (232 807).
By industry 7 974 South African LinkedIn members are farmers, 36 134 are in ‘arts’ (12300 of them in design), 61 000 are in construction, 74 012 are educators, 176 347 are in finance, 46 286 work in government, 154 258 work in IT, 24 000 are lawyers, 139 211 are in manufacturing and 77 578 are in the consumer goods segment. Then there is over 40 000 media professionals, 59 000 work in the medical sector, 26 000 work for non-profits, 77 000 in recreational (entertainment, casinos, hospitality etc), 38 000 in transport and 25 000 in the service industry.
Falling under the ‘Corporate’ heading are 107 000 South African LinkeIn members, including 29 900 in marketing and advertising, more than 5000 in PR and 19 000 in management consulting.
The gender breakdown for LinkedIn members in South Africa stands at around 55.6% male and 44.4% female.
For Q1 2012 LinkeIn announced 101 percent revenue growth year on year to $188.5 million. Hiring Solutions revenue was $102.6 million while advertising brought in $48.0 million. Premium Subscriptions revenues ended the quarter at $37.9 million.
Source: All LinkedIn data, including those we used in the graphs and charts, were sourced from Habari Media. Financial information was sourced from LinkedIn.
Really interesting!
I was wondering what the numbers were like here in South Africa. Look at that “Finance” number
– almost 10% of the SA total and more than IT!
Thanks for posting!