LinkedIn Expands Hong Kong Operations

Two years after setting up in Hong Kong, LinkedIn has moved to a bigger and more prominent office, signifying the firm’s commitment to the city

LinkedIn, the largest global online professional network, has nearly doubled its global revenue to US$473.2 million in the first quarter of 2014 than the same period in 2013. In 2012, it established an office in Hong Kong to develop North Asia business. Since then, Hong Kong members has doubled to 900,000. In 2014, two years after its opening, LinkedIn Hong Kong has expanded and moved to a 10,000 square foot office at Hysan Place, Causeway Bay, with more than 50 employees.

“We crossed the 50-million member mark in Asia in February 2014,” Olivier Legrand, Managing Director and Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan, LinkedIn, said. “Hong Kong is a strategic growth market in Asia Pacific to us. The city has the highest growth through mobile and is among a few countries in the region that is leading the mobile moment.”

According to Legrand, more than 50 percent of traffic on LinkedIn comes from mobile devices as compared to desktop. The Hong Kong office has different functions, including LinkedIn Marketing Solutions and Talent Solutions. Serving clients and members across North Asia, LinkedIn believes in a “member first” approach. They are mainly involved in a diverse range of industries, especially in financial services, IT services, higher education, telecommunications, and marketing and advertising sectors.

Asia’s Business Hub to Connect to Professionals

“From a marketer’s perspective, we felt it necessary to have a presence in Hong Kong because Hong Kong is a hub for headquarters - more than 2,400 global companies have set up their regional headquarters here,” Legrand said. “Having an officehere and being able to deliver our services close to these companies is important.”

Other factors that were equally attractive included Hong Kong’s strategic location in the heart of Asia. “It is located very close to other places that are important to us like Taiwan, Japan and Korea. So we set up an operation here to be responsible for North Asia,” he said.

“There’s a great connection to our mission statement of connecting the world’s professionals, making them more productive and successful. People live here, operate and develop their business here, meet their partners and potential clients from this part of the world. We felt it’s the natural place for us,” he added.

Strong Business Uptake

LinkedIn saw strong uptake of its solutions, especially Marketing Solutions and Talent Solutions, and a lot of interest from marketers. Cathay Pacific is a very successful client case as they used LinkedIn to increase brand awareness among people who travelled business class between the US and Asia two years ago.

Legrand found the setting up process efficient. “When we decided to open the Hong Kong office, our finance director leveraged InvestHK’s support. We continue to be very pleased with our choice to be in Hong Kong to develop our business in this part of the world,” he concluded.