LinkedIn has crossed the 500 million-member mark, across 200 countries. The Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region has played its part contributing over 22 million members in all.

In MENA, the UAE is among the strongest LinkedIn markets with over three millions members. Interestingly, UAE also is LinkedIn’s top most “connected” country globally. This essentially means that professionals in the UAE have an average of 211 connections per member.

This mark more importantly is an indicator of how UAE professionals rely on LinkedIn as a connection tool, constantly growing their professional network. LinkedIn’s presence in multiple languages, most significantly Arabic, has helped in this.

“We encourage all members to connect with relevant professionals to increase their industry networks. It is great to see the UAE ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to recognizing the value of a strong online professional network. A large majority of the UAE’s workforce has come from abroad – LinkedIn makes it easy for professionals seeking to connect with each other around the world, and to keep up to date with relevant companies and industry topics, wherever the market. We are excited to have reached the 500 million milestone globally, and look forward to seeing how our breadth of talented members will help us to achieve our goal of creating an economic opportunity for every member in the workforce,” said Ali Matar, Head of LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Emerging Markets, Middle East and North Africa.

At a global level, the impact of half a billion professionals connecting and communicating is very real, and professionals in the region will also benefit from this. LinkedIn’s attempts of creating a knowledge exchange platform of and for a global workforce has its advantages, that the region can also benefit from.

Earlier in January 2017, LinkedIn released the LinkedIn UAE Power Profiles list, a celebration of professionals who understood the importance of investing in their online personal brand and who succeeded in growing their employer’s brand by becoming its ambassadors. These Power Profiles are skilfully growing their professional networks online and sharing insights on areas that they are passionate about.

LinkedIn opened its first office in the MENA region in 2012 in Dubai which serves as a regional headquarters to members and customers.