

LinkedIn has about 120 million members worldwide, with 20 million in Asia and the South Pacific. It began moving into Asia in late 2009, concentrating first on English-dominant markets like India and Australia.
"As we think about the region as a whole, we see tremendous opportunities for growth," Rajan told The Associated Press in Tokyo. "Our penetration levels in Asia, except for those English-speaking countries, are still relatively low." Rajan said the company is not focused on revenue in Japan at this point. Rather, it aims to grow its membership and will tweak the service to fit local needs.

Along with translating the platform, LinkedIn built special tutorial pages to teach Japanese members how to use the site. It also introduces core LinkedIn concepts that may be unfamiliar in Japan such as connecting and the value of a professional network. "There's a lot more education that we're going to need to do," Rajan said. "That's on us to really figure out how to do that." LinkedIn is now available in 10 languages. More are in the works, though Rajan declined to say which languages might be next. Earlier this year, it launched in Russian, Romanian and Turkish.

LinkedIn has had a decent year, having executed the biggest initial public offering by a U.S. Internet company since Google went public in 2004. The company reported better-than-expected quarterly profits in August as growth in membership and revenue picked up pace, though its share price has floundered. (AP)