1.
Expanding Internationally:
A Primer With LinkedIn
Aatif Awan
Vice President, Growth, International & Data Products at LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/in/aatifawan
aatif_awan
How We Grew LinkedIn To 540M+ Members Across The Globe
100K 2M 4M 8M 17M
33M
55M
89M
145M
202M
277M
347M
414M
484M
546M
03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

2.
When America sneezes,
the World catches a
cold.
When America sneezes,
the World catches a
cold.
becoming less and less true

3.
Source: howmuch.net

4.
Share of Projected GDP Growth (2017-2019)
Source: visualcapitalist.com

5.
Companies not Capitalizing Fully on the Global
Opportunity
Companies with more
global exposure grow
materially faster than
those with less global
exposure
Despite this, only 43% of
S&P 500 revenue is from
outside the US
Source: factset.com

6.
Story of LinkedIn’s Global Growth

7.
About me
• VP Growth, International & Data products at LinkedIn
• Have led LinkedIn growth for 7 years, helping grow
LinkedIn by nearly half a Billion members
• Leading LinkedIn-Microsoft product integrations, which
are a massive growth opportunity

8.
LinkedIn Grew from 500K to 500 Million+ in 13 years
20172004
1000x

9.
LinkedIn
International
SnapshotRegional membership
• 171+M EMEA
• 160+M US & Canada
• 136+M Asia and the Pacific
• 76+M LATAM
Offices in 32 cities across the
globe
70%+ of members and
engagement from international

10.
Growth & International @ LinkedIn: 2003-2007
Product market fit. Growth built into
product from the start.
Reid Hoffman and team invited well-
connected people in the industry.
Public profiles launch in 2006, became a
second major growth channel due to SEO.
Organic expansion into English-speaking
markets
100K 2M 4M 8M 17M
03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
LinkedIn Member Growth

11.
Growth & International @ LinkedIn: 2008-2011
Dedicated cross-functional growth team
(~15 people) focused on acquisition.
Identified drivers for key channels and
optimized.
International expansion. Saw 100%+ lifts
in growth for most markets where we
translated into local language.
Global sales team to monetize
international expansion
100K 2M 4M 8M 17M
33M
55M
89M
145M
03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
LinkedIn Member Growth

12.
Growth & International @ LinkedIn: 2012- 2017
Expanded to cover acquisition, activation,
connections, retention and resurrection,
notifications.
Focus on quality: signups -> quality
signups -> engaged quality members
Accelerated international expansion by:
• Translating site into 24 languages
• Investing heavily in mobile and
partnerships
• Dedicated R&D teams for China, India,
Germany and Japan.
• Expanded global sales teams
100K 2M 4M 8M 17M
33M
55M
89M
145M
202M
277M
347M
414M
484M
546M
03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
LinkedIn Member Growth

13.
Lessons from LinkedIn’s Global Growth

14.
Develop a long-term Market Prioritization Framework
• Develop a prioritization framework
that takes into account
• Importance to mission & vision
• Product Market fit
• Headroom for user/customer growth
• Monetization upside based on
economic indicators and willingness to
pay
• Consider where the world is
headed, not just what it looks like
today
• Classify markets as Core,
Strategic and Venture and invest
Chart is illustrative, not representing actual data

15.
Start with High-ROI Basic Localization
• Highest ROI from localizing
markets that have product-
market fit
• Translation, voice & tone
• Copy optimization by geo
• Local payment methods
• Localize content
• Invest in local customer
service, BizDev, marketing,
editorial & sales team

16.
Remove Local Barriers to Adoption
• Qualitative research to
understand user pain points
• Quantitative analysis of product
usage & funnels to identify
barriers
• Common barriers include:
• User input fields that don’t apply (state,
zipcode etc.)
• Site speed: For LinkedIn, we found this to
be the case in India and invested in
LinkedIn Lite
• Price being too high because it’s based on

17.
Think local, make Global: Build Globally Scalable Growth
Channels
• Assess whether your growth
channels will scale in major
international markets
• For LinkedIn, SEO and viral
growth both had challenges
internationally
• SEO was relatively easy to adapt in all
markets except China
• Made a big strategic investment in
transitioning email-based viral growth to
mobile (phone graph and SMS), crucial for
China and India
• Designing for global adoption

18.
Partnerships
WeChat
Partnerships & Government Relations can be Big
Accelerators

19.
Evangelize Global Growth Early and Often
• Easy to lose sight of global opportunities and focus on
users near the team
• Make your company’s mission global
• Persuade your exec team and enlist them to evangelize to
everyone
• Plan regular visits for key people to priority markets.
Nothing better than this for people to truly understand a
market and why it matters

20.
Recap
• International expansion is a big growth opportunity that most
companies don’t invest enough in
• LinkedIn is a global network with 70%+ of members outside
the US
• Rules of the Global Playbook
• Develop a long-term Market Prioritization Framework
• Start with High-ROI Basic Localization
• Remove Local Barriers to Adoption
• Think local, make Global: Build Globally Scalable Growth Channels
• Partnerships & Government Relations can be Big Accelerators
• Evangelize Global Growth Early and Often

21.
“The world is your oyster. It's up to
you to find the pearls.”
Final thought I’d leave you with…
Chris Gardner – author of
“The Pursuit of
Happyness”

22.
Source: Wikipedia
aatif_awanwww.linkedin.com/in/aatifawan