Post its $26.2 billion acquisition by Microsoft, Linkedin has shown impressive growth over the previous two quarters. Today, the widely popular professional social network has an announcement to make. The Microsoft-owned giant has now crossed a massive and significant milestone in the history of its existence.

Announced via an official blog post, LinkedIn has crossed the 500 million user milestone, meaning the said number of individuals have registered on the platform from around 200 countries. There is a definite uptick in the overall user count from last time when LinkedIn reported the said figures, which stood at around 467 million earlier last year. The company is now owned by Microsoft, so we no longer have access to Individual metrics. However, we know that the acquisition cost $100 million to their social network for workplace individuals.

Speaking on achieving this milestone, Aatif Awan, Vice President, Growth & International Products at LinkedIn said:

The impact of half a billion professionals connecting and communicating is very real and very accessible to anyone who wants to take part today. We’re excited to think about the potential of what a highly connected global community of professionals can do and the value that is created for every member of the global workforce.

In addition, LinkedIn has updated us with some metrics surrounding the steadily growing and massive community on the platform. It has been suggested that the working class on the platform have access to over 9 million companies and represent about 10 million active jobs. This is the largest single professional community, which publishes 100,000+ articles on the daily and interacts with each other to stay informed about the business world.

As for an individual connection, you’re connected to around 500 individuals, encompass nearly 100 companies who’re looking for a candidate with your skill set and can be introduced to 400+ new people via these connections. Over the years, LinkedIn has grown to become a necessity for any professional as it enables you to connect and learn about new opportunities. It even enables you to stay in touch with your colleagues and distant friends that help you keep an eye out on the business world. Here are a handful of metrics from around the globe as well:

Though the user base has swelled by about 33 million in the last six months, this doesn’t exactly showcase a massive spike. LinkedIn had previously been growing at similar rates during any six-month period. The company has been trying to break out further growth, even after bogged down by Facebook, under the reigns of Redmond. It has introduced several changes and add-on features to entice users to the platform —  be it change to the overall user interface of the desktop app or a new LinkedIn Learning platform to help the professionals learn new skills.

As for changes to the desktop platform, they’re not restricted to visual aspects of the same but also extend to include new features as well. It removes the clutter and focuses on getting the important stuff front and center and in the process, moving itself closer to the interface adopted by LinkedIn’s mobile app. A new universal search bar has made its way through the new interface — allowing users to look for other professional based upon parameters like people, jobs, companies, groups and schools. The messaging interface now visually looks closer to Facebook than anything else on the market — it also brings along chatbots.

Also, the company is now looking to turn the platform into a primary source of news consumption for the professional users. They are being provided with a new feature called ‘Trending Storylines’ and it enables users to access developing stories, which are being pulled together from your interests, networks, publishers and human editors. It is being personalized by a combination of machine learning algorithms and LinkedIn’s in-house 24-member strong editorial team. LinkedIn is banking on the success of such features to attract users and induce further growth on their platform.