India has the largest member base after the U.S.

The professional social network, LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, said India ranked as the second largest market for the company in terms of users after the U.S.

The company which achieved a milestone of 500 million member mark across 200 countries has about 42 million users in India.

LinkedIn has grown more than 40% in India over the past two years, according to a statement. The country contributes over 35.5% to the APAC community which has more than 118 million members.

In the Asia Pacific region China follows India in the second position with a total member base of over 31 million, while Australia comes is in the third slot with more than 8 million members.

“India is the largest member base outside the United States and continues to be among the fastest growing communities. To put this in perspective, it took seven years for the first 10 million members to sign up on LinkedIn in India; but the last 10 million members were added in a little over a year,” said Akshay Kothari, Country Manager, LinkedIn India.

With an aim to expand the reach in the country in September last LinkedIn had announced three products like LinkdeIn lite — the lite version of its mobile website and LinkedIn placement — and LinkedIn Starter Pack for students and targeting start-ups and SMBs respectively.

The company, which was acquired by Microsoft for $26 billion in December, also feels it can grow much faster in India with the roll-out of LinkedIn Lite.