LinkedIn hits 10 million members in the UK

LinkedIn, the social networking site for professionals, has hit a major milestone in the UK with the recruitment of its 10 millionth member.

According to LinkedIn, which launched in the UK in 2007, four out of five British professionals now use the business network to connect, exchange knowledge and ideas, and do business.

The top five member hotspots are London, Birmingham, Reading, Edinburgh and Manchester.

LinkedIn has proved to be a useful tool for professionals in a wide array of industries, allowing them to showcase their skills online. Members range from vets (18,750) to farmers (2,545), and teachers (50,496) to company directors (406,850).

“Reaching 10 million members in the UK shows that skilled workers believe our community is vital to their careers,” said Ariel Eckstein, LinkedIn European Managing Director.

“Every day, our members are adding information to their profiles, sharing important views and insights, connecting to one another, building their networks and getting access to a world of potential contacts, business partners, investors, employers and employees.”

LinkedIn has over 175 million members worldwide, and recently reported revenues of $228.2 million for the second quarter of 2012 – an increase of 89 percent compared to the second quarter of 2011. However, net income was down to $2.8 million, compared to $4.5 million during the same period last year.

The period was blighted by a massive security breach at the beginning of June, when nearly 6.5 million LinkedIn passwords were stolen and posted to the Norwegian Dagens IT site.

While the vast majority of the passwords were encrypted, a subset was decoded. However, all member passwords deemed to be at risk were disabled, and there were no reports of member accounts being breached, according to the company.