According the LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, the networking site is registering a new user each second, with China and Brazil growing fastest. Within the last nine days, a million new people created LinkedIn accounts, impressive numbers for a site the made its debut in 2003.
At yesterdays’ Web 2.0 Summit, Weiner was often asked questions comparing his company to Facebook. In fact, the executive finds LinkedIn’s success to be in its differences. “People tend to lump us in with Facebook and Twitter… LinkedIn is, simply, a professional network.” He also pointed out that Facebook and Twitter are about entertainment, whereas LinkedIn serves the opposite purpose. “It’s not about passing the time, it’s about saving time.”
With 85 million users, it looks like it’s working. Still, Weiner admitted his site has been slower to beef up its site than social networking sites have. LinkedIn hasn’t built up connections to external sites like Facebook and Twitter have, but Weiner assures users that this is being addressed. “We’re investing in our APIs so we can get that service to our users. They want it.”
In case it isn’t obvious enough why there’s a difference between LinkedIn and Facebook, Weiner simply explains: “Keg stands.” As is evidenced by its climbing numbers, people want to separate the professional from the personal.
