35% of the Catalans who do not have LinkedIn would start using it if the platform incorporated the Catalan language. Among young people, this figure rises to 48.3%. These figures are taken from a survey commissioned from the company GESOP by Plataforma per la Llengua. The survey also concludes that use of the network in Catalonia is limited (it is used by almost one-third of Catalans) and the percentage of use is greater among Spanish-speakers than among Catalan-speakers. So, while only 25.2% of Catalan-speakers have LinkedIn, the percentage rises to 33% among Spanish-speakers. This can be explained by the fact that Catalan-speakers do not see the platform so much as belonging to them. In fact, in the case of Instagram, a survey commissioned by the organisation had already shown that the Spanish version did not satisfy the preferences of Catalan-speaking users, who used the English version in much higher percentages than Spanish-speakers.

LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft in 2016 and is the largest network of professional contacts in the world: it has 830 million users and a presence in 200 countries. The platform can be configured in 24 languages, but not in Catalan, despite the fact that languages such as Norwegian and Danish, with a demographic importance similar to Catalan, are present there. In addition to these 24 languages, the platform also allows you to configure your personal profile, which includes your curriculum vitae, in 45 languages. This is not offered for Catalan either, although it is available for most European languages of similar size. Nor does the platform allow users to publish advertisements in Catalan and advises them to do it "in Spanish or English".

The survey also reveals that almost half the current users of the platform in Catalonia would set LinkedIn up in Catalan. Extrapolated into absolute numbers, this implies that one million Catalan users would change their network configuration to have the interface and profile in Catalan. Among users who already use the platform, those most interested in having it in Catalan would be people from outside the metropolitan region of Barcelona (57.1%) and young people between 16 and 29 years old (52.2%). As we have already said, if the application incorporated Catalan, 35% of the Catalans who are not yet users should be added to this figure, a percentage rising to 48.3% among young people.

For Plataforma per la Llengua, this data highlights the linguistic sensitivity of Catalan consumers and should serve to encourage LinkedIn to include Catalan in its interface and personal profiles. At the moment, the absence of our language on the platform makes Catalan invisible in the labour market and forces users who want to promote themselves to turn to other languages. Its absence also makes integration with public employment services difficult in Catalan-speaking territories.

Plataforma per la Llengua has been working for years to convince LinkedIn to respect the 10 million Catalan-speakers and to incorporate Catalan both into its interface and in personal CVs. As part of this work, Plataforma per la Llengua has promoted a campaign to collect signatures via the canvia.cat portal to demand that LinkedIn incorporate Catalan into its network. The campaign remains open and has already obtained more than 28,300 signatures.