India, December 2, 2021: LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, today marked a new milestone with the launch of Hindi, the first Indian regional language on LinkedIn, with the goal to support 600 million Hindi language speakers globally. With this launch, LinkedIn aims to break down language barriers, providing greater access to professional and networking opportunities to Hindi speakers in India and around the world. With the launch of Hindi, LinkedIn now supports 25 languages globally.
Starting today, as part of the Phase 1 roll-out of LinkedIn in Hindi, members will be able to access their feed, profile, jobs, messaging, and create content in Hindi on desktop, and on their Android and iOS phones. As the next step, LinkedIn will work towards widening the range of job opportunities available for Hindi speaking professionals across industries, including more banking, and government jobs. The platform will also continue to add more Hindi publishers and creators in the coming weeks to boost member engagement and conversations in Hindi.
India is a core market for growth at LinkedIn and the second largest market in terms of members after the US, accounting for 82 million members as part of a global community of 800 million members. India’s member base has grown by 20+ million in the past three years (15% year-over-year growth) and it has witnessed a spike in engagement and conversations on the platform since the pandemic.
“In India, LinkedIn has been mission critical to helping people connect, learn, grow and get hired during the pandemic and in this new world of work we are in. With the launch of Hindi, now more members and customers can unlock greater value from the platform through content, jobs, and networking, and express themselves in a language that they feel comfortable in.
We have witnessed high engagement and member growth in the last year, and it is at this exciting inflection point that we are strengthening our vision to create economic opportunity for ‘every’ member of the workforce, and taking down language barriers for Hindi speakers across the world,” says Ashutosh Gupta, India Country Manager, LinkedIn.
LinkedIn in Hindi is now available to all members globally on Desktop and Android, and will gradually roll out to all iOS users in the coming days
How to use LinkedIn, and set up your profile, in Hindi
Smartphone users will need to select Hindi as their preferred device language under phone settings to view the LinkedIn mobile application in Hindi. For members who are already using Hindi as their preferred language on their smartphones, the LinkedIn experience will automatically be available in Hindi. On desktop, members will need to click on the ‘Me’ icon at the top of their LinkedIn homepage and select ‘Settings and Privacy’. Members then need to click on ‘Account Preferences’ on the left, select ‘Site Preferences’, click ‘Change’ next to ‘Language’, and select ‘Hindi’ from the drop down list.
Once selected, the user interface and platform experience, including the navigation bar, will be displayed in Hindi, to help members quickly and easily locate features they are looking for. User-generated content, such as posts on a member’s home feed, will be displayed in the language that they were originally created in. However, for members whose primary language selection is set to Hindi, clicking on ‘See Translation’ option will display Hindi translations of the respective posts. If members are not already using a Hindi keyboard, to create Hindi content on LinkedIn, they will need to switch their keyboard input language to Hindi, or add the Hindi keyboard on their desktop or smartphone.
With the launch of Hindi, members also have the advantage of creating their LinkedIn profile in Hindi, and make it easier for Hindi speaking members and recruiters to find them for relevant opportunities. New LinkedIn members can sign up for LinkedIn in Hindi by visiting LinkedIn.com and registering for a new account. Members with existing English profiles can add a second language profile in Hindi. Adding a second language profile is currently only available on Desktop. To create a second language profile, members will need to click on the “Me” icon, followed by “View Profile”, and then “Add profile in another language”.
To display their existing profile in Hindi, members will need to create a secondary language profile in the same language as their existing profile. This will prompt them to choose a preferred language for their existing profile from a drop down list of 25 languages, which now includes Hindi.
The launch of LinkedIn in Hindi saw LinkedIn Influencers such as international life coach Gaur Gopal Das, monk-turned-entrepreneur Dr. Vivek Bindra, and nearbuy.com founder Ankur Warikoo share their first Hindi posts on their LinkedIn profiles.
The launch of Hindi is part of LinkedIn’s vision to become a more equitable platform, and to allow more diverse professional communities to unlock greater value from LinkedIn. Other global initiatives include Project Every Member and the LinkedIn Fairness Toolkit that build equality into LinkedIn’s products and remove systemic biases and barriers to opportunity.
This is the Phase 1 roll-out of LinkedIn in Hindi, and the platform will evaluate member feedback and adoption to improve the member experience over the next few months. To get the latest news and Hindi creators to follow, check out this Storyline here. Read the blog here.
LinkedIn in Hindi is now available to all members globally on Desktop and Android, and will gradually roll out to all iOS users in the coming days. Visit the LinkedIn Help Centre to learn how you can view LinkedIn in Hindi, choose Hindi as the primary language on your profile, create or delete a profile in another language, and edit your secondary language profile.
