Leading professional networking website LinkedIn has opened a research and development unit in Bangalore, the first center of its kind outside its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. LinkedIn has a membership of 135 million members worldwide and more than 12 million in India.
The new R&D unit is expected to employ more than 35 engineers by the end of this year, including software engineers, data warehouse and network engineers, and database administrators. LinkedIn already has about 70 employees in India.
The new facility is expected to help build and operate the core products and applications of the company. Located at the Bagmane Tech Park, the LinkedIn Technology Centre will be the company’s fourth office in the country after its India headquarters in Mumbai and sales offices in Gurgaon and Bangalore.
Deep Nishar, senior vice president of products and user experience, said the company’s priority would be to build a local team to develop applications relevant for professionals and emphasized that mobile was a fast-growing segment for the company.
The engineering operations will he headed by Ganesh Krishnan, who previously worked with LinkedIn’s and Yahoo’s U.S. operations, has 13 years of experience in security infrastructure and information security.
Founded by former PayPal executive Reid Hoffman in 2003, LinkedIn’s business model is based on revenue coming from member subscriptions, marketing solutions and hiring solutions.
