According to TechCrunch, LinkedIn has now passed a major milestone with over 100 million members adding at least one verification to their profile. The company’s VP of trust products, Oscar Rodriguez, revealed that members are adding about 30 million verifications annually, with overall adoption up more than 38% year-over-year in 2025. While the United States still accounts for the largest share (about 40%) of those verified users, India has emerged as the fastest-growing market, with verification adoption skyrocketing about 80% in the past 12 months. The platform, which started verification rollouts in 2022, now has over 160 million users in India alone. Most verification is done via workplace email (60%), with only about 27% using a government ID. LinkedIn also reports verified members see up to 60% more profile views and 50% more post interactions.
Why India is leading the charge
Here’s the thing: this growth in India isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s unfolding alongside a massive, broader expansion of LinkedIn’s user base and utility in the country. With remote work solidifying and the professional landscape becoming fiercely competitive, standing out and proving you’re legit is more crucial than ever. Basically, in a massive, fast-moving job market, a verification badge becomes a quick, trusted signal. It cuts through the noise. And for LinkedIn, a market with 160 million-plus users that’s still growing rapidly is the perfect petri dish for testing and scaling these trust features. Their usage patterns are starting to shape the platform globally.
The bigger verification play
Now, the real interesting move isn’t just the badges on LinkedIn itself. It’s the export of that trust. LinkedIn’s new “Verified on LinkedIn” program and its self-serve API mean that third-party platforms like Zoom and Adobe can display those verification badges. Think about that. Your verified LinkedIn identity could soon be a portable credential you use to prove who you are in virtual meetings, on software platforms, or in partner marketplaces. That’s a much bigger ambition than just cleaning up fake profiles. It’s about turning LinkedIn into an identity layer for the professional web. But is that a role users want it to have? And can they maintain the integrity of that system as it scales?
Stakeholder impact and engagement
So who wins here? For everyday users, the data suggests a clear benefit: more eyes on your profile and more engagement on your content. For recruiters and hiring managers, verified job listings and company pages promise a higher degree of safety and integrity—that’s huge in a world rife with scams. For enterprises, it’s about brand protection and attracting real talent. And for developers and other platforms, that new API presents an opportunity to bake in trusted identity without building the system from scratch. The claimed 60% boost in profile views is a powerful incentive for anyone serious about their professional presence to get that checkmark. The question is, when verification becomes commonplace, does the advantage fade, or does not having one become a red flag?
The trust economy’s new currency
Look, we’re watching the professional world’s “trust infrastructure” get built in real-time. A verified profile is becoming the new baseline. It’s no longer a nice-to-have but a core component of your digital professional persona. LinkedIn is betting that this signal is so valuable that it will drive its own growth and become an exportable product. The staggering growth in markets like India proves there’s a massive appetite for it. But with great verification comes great responsibility. They have to get the security and privacy absolutely right, especially as they move into government ID checks. If they can manage that, they’re not just a networking site anymore. They’re becoming the de facto passport for the global workforce.
