LinkedIn announces second Latin American office in Mexico City

Contxto – As Mexico becomes one of the most prominent markets for big foreign tech companies, the next one to land in the North American country will be LinkedIn. According to sources, the company intends to open its second Latin American office in Mexico City, after São Paulo. 

In fact, last week during my South American roadshow, I visited LinkedIn’s São Paulo headquarters to better understand what it has been up to. With this new development, regional tech activity is certainly going to get a boost.

By July 2020, the new offices for the professional social network will reportedly premiere in Mexico City. Many employees will migrate from São Paulo to Mexico, but there will also be openings for local jobseekers.

LinkedIn’s Senior Director for Latin America, Milton Beck, believes this will further consolidate the company’s regional presence. In his opinion, Mexico is certainly one of the firm’s strongest markets. After all, with 13 million LinkedIn users out of 92 million throughout Latin America, it’s the company’s seventh-largest global market.

“Mexico has always been a part of our plans,” said the executive. “We visualized being present in Mexico from the very beginning. It was something that had to be done at some point. I believe that we’ve reached important numbers in this country.”

Beck also believes that Mexico will bring LinkedIn in closer proximity to over 1,000 customers. Certain partners in Mexico include Aeromexico or BBVA.

Similar to what LinkedIn does in the São Paulo offices, most of its activity in Mexico will involve commercial and strategic efforts rather than product development.

Tech city

Google, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, and even Netflix have offices in Mexico City. With that said, LinkedIn will certainly contribute to the city’s development as one of Latin America’s most promising tech hubs.

“Although in the past there was a barrier in what Mexican companies were doing in social networks, now this barrier is almost nil,” said Beck.

“I think that being closer will be easier for us to be with our partners and customers to help them use the latest technologies and strategies in terms of B2B business marketing, B2B sales, B2B activities.”

“During the time we have been in São Paulo, we have grown in the region since we opened the office in 2011 with two people,” he continued. “The following year, we had 15, and 8 years later, we have almost 300 people. We expect Mexico to grow in the same way.”

Currently, Mexico is the most critical Spanish-speaking market for LinkedIn in Latin America. Altogether, though, it’s the second-largest in the region behind Brazil. As part of the plan, there are specific solutions and products that will be tested, launched and consolidated in the regional market. 

Talent acquisition products that leverage big data to optimize recruitment will take precedence. After this, other areas for development will include marketing, sales, as well as learning solutions.

-VC