Here's LinkedIn's Biggest Unsolved Revenue Problem Right Now (LNKD)

LinkedIn bragged in its Q3 2012 earnings disclosures that the potential for growth in its user base came from all over the planet, not just the U.S.: "[we] currently have more than 187 million members in over 200 countries and territories."

That sounds like LinkedIn is the careers-based version of Facebook— something that everyone seems to use, everywhere.

In fact that's not the case. LinkedIn is virtually locked out, or running a poor second, to similar careers networks in Germany, France and Japan, for instance.

LinkedIn remains largely hidebound to America right now, at least in terms of its revenue. CEO Jeff Weiner's biggest problem is figuring out how to persuade foreigners to put their resumes on the site, and to make those users revenue-generators.

Here's a deep dive, based on LinkedIn's own metrics and BI's research, on LinkedIn's "foreigner" problem.

Here's LinkedIn's revenue, broken out by geographic area. All the regions are growing, but non-American areas remain the minority of the business. LinkedIn promised to expand its international membership in its 10-Q.

Here's the same information for Q3 2012 presented in a more visually intuitive way. Clearly, from a revenue point of view, LinkedIn is basically an American company. But why?

Here's what's going on in Germany: The local careers network there has more than twice the members than LinkedIn does.

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