LinkedIn, a website that brought a new model with its business social networking platform has crossed the mark of 50 million members worldwide after the website added around one million users in just 12 days.

Launched in May 2003, the business networking website added the first million members in around 477 days (almost a year and four months). The reason behind the growth rate seems to be its global reach spanning around 200 countries.

LinkedIn’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Weiner writes in his blog, “LinkedIn has been global since inception — about half of our total membership is international.”

Weiner reveals that LinkedIn has about 11 million users in Europe alone. Besides, he mentions that Indian region is showing outstanding response to the platform. India is currently LinkedIn’s fastest-growing country with almost 3 million users. The Netherlands has the highest rate of adoption per capita outside the U.S., at 30%.

The company has been growing and seeking to explore various opportunities to link the professionals globally. LinkedIn was valued at $1 billion last year when it raised around $53 million in a fundraising led by Bain Capital. Currently, subscription fee for a few premier applications brings revenue for the website. LinkedIn also brings in money from advertising by providing the advertisers with LinkedIn Audience Network, which makes non-personally identifiable data, such as industry, job function, seniority, company size, gender and geography, thus optimizing their goals.

“We’re proud to have reached this latest milestone, and we very much appreciate our members’ use of LinkedIn. However, in the context of our mission – to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful – we’re just getting started,” adds Weiner.