17 Years: Time Required For LinkedIn To Become As Big As Facebook

LinkedIn today said they have an 85 million user base and that they are adding "a new member every second". How big is this really, in the overall context of professional social networking?

We have seen this "every second" trick before: Steve Jobs famously said "we are selling an iPad every 3 seconds". Lets do a back-of-the-envelope calculation.

At its current growth rate, and assuming that facebook doesnt grow at all for the next few years - how long would it take LinkedIn to become as big as facebook? 17 Years. Thats right. And thats assuming that facebook doesnt grow at all.

Statistics Source: TC