LinkedIn on Thursday launched Hindi language support to expand its professional social network to new users. With the new addition, the Microsoft-owned platform has started supporting 25 languages globally. LinkedIn said that by adding the new language to its network, it is aiming to support 600 million Hindi language speakers in India and around the world. Hindi language support is live for both mobile and desktop users of LinkedIn. The company also has plans to expand its new offering by bringing a range of job opportunities available for Hindi professionals on its platform.
Starting today, LinkedIn members will start seeing Hindi on their feed, profile, jobs, and messaging on desktop as well as on their Android and iOS devices. It will also be available to users signing up on the platform.
LinkedIn calls the initial rollout of Hindi just Phase 1, as it has plans to “work towards widening the range of job opportunities available for Hindi speaking professionals across industries, including more banking, and government jobs.” The platform is also planning to add more Hindi publishers and creators in the coming weeks to boost engagement and conversations among members speaking Hindi as their native language.
“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,” said Ashutosh Gupta, India Country Manager, LinkedIn, in a prepared statement.
How to use LinkedIn in Hindi
To use LinkedIn in Hindi on an Android or iOS device, users need to select Hindi as their preferred device language under the phone settings. The experience will automatically be available in Hindi if you have already selected Hindi as your preferred language. On the desktop, you can select Hindi by clicking on the Me icon from the top-right side of your LinkedIn homepage and then going to Settings & Privacy > Account Preferences > Site Preferences > Language.
It is important to note that while the user interface and platform experience including the navigation bar will be displayed in Hindi, users will continue to use the user-generated content such as posts on their home feed in the language that they were originally created in. However, once you have selected Hindi as your preferred language, you will get a See Translation option from where you can get Hindi translations of the respective posts.
New LinkedIn members can also sign up in Hindi by visiting LinkedIn.com and registering for a new account. Existing users can also display their profile in Hindi after creating a second language profile in the same language as their existing profile.
Users can add Hindi as their second language through their desktop. For creating a second language profile, you need to click on the Me icon followed by View Profile and then Add profile in another language.
By adding Hindi, LinkedIn indeed wants to grow its presence in India. The country is touted to be the second largest market in terms of members after the US, accounting for 82 million members as a part of its global base of 800 million members. India’s LinkedIn member base also grew by over 20 million members in the past three years with 15 percent year-on-year growth and witnessed a spike in engagement and conversations on the platform since the pandemic started in March last year, the company said.
“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,” Gupta noted.