LinkedIn’s Mobile Growth

According to an eMarketer report released earlier this year, an increasing number of recruiters are moving to LinkedIn as their preferred source of candidates. A survey of recruiters conducted by recruitment software company Bullhorn in the country found that in 2012, 98% of recruiters were relying on a social network tool to access candidates. A year ago, that number stood at 94%. Of those surveyed, more than 82% of the respondents were planning to increase the use of LinkedIn for their services. The shift towards LinkedIn is also in response to the 93% success rate in candidate placement through LinkedIn last year, compared with 86% a year ago.

LinkedIn’s Financials

LinkedIn’s (Nasdaq:LNKD) Q2 revenues grew 59% over the year to $363.7 million, ahead of the market’s expectations of $353.8 million. EPS of $0.38 was also significantly ahead of the Street’s target of $0.31 for the quarter.

By segment, revenues from Talent solutions grew 69% to $205.1 million. Marketing solutions’ revenues grew 36% over the year to $85.6 million, while Premium Subscription revenues grew 68% to $72.9 million.

By region, revenues from the US now account for 69% of the quarter’s revenues at $251.1 million. EMEA regions accounted for $84.7 million and APAC regions brought in $27.8 million in revenues for the quarter. Among operating metrics, LinkedIn’s user base grew 37% over the year and 9% over the quarter to 238 million users. According to comScore, LinkedIn had more than 189 million unique visitors a month in the quarter.

For the current quarter, LinkedIn projects revenues of $367-$373 million with an adjusted EBITDA of $81-$83 million. It expects to end the year with revenues of $1.455 billion-$1.475 billion and an adjusted EBITDA of $340-$355.0 million. The Street was looking for revenues of $383 million for the quarter and $1.498 billion for the year.

LinkedIn’s Mobile Focus

As part of LinkedIn’s continued effort to cater to the mobile segment, it introduced the ability to apply for jobs through their app. iOS- and Android-based LinkedIn app users will now be able to use their existing LinkedIn profiles to apply for jobs. The app does not have the feature to upload a customized resume. The effort will help more than a third of their user base which accesses the portal through the mobile app. For now, the feature will be available for the English-language app and will soon be made available to other language apps as well.

LinkedIn is also working to increase monetization from their mobile app. Recently it launched the feature of sponsored updates for their advertisers. As part of sponsored updates, posts that would normally be available to the follower of an organization are pushed to other LinkedIn members who may not necessarily be following those organizations. The feed will help advertisers address a targeted demographic and also help LinkedIn increase their advertising revenues. However, it will be critical for LinkedIn to keep a balance between the volume and quality of feeds that are sent to users so as to avoid spamming them.

Earlier this quarter, LinkedIn announced the acquisition of polling startup, Maybe. Maybe was a social polling app founded by AdMob’s founder, Omar Hanoui. Following the acquisition, Maybe soon shut down its app and the five-member team joined LinkedIn’s mobile team. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Maybe has confirmed that the acquisition was made to strengthen LinkedIn’s talent within the mobile segment.

The market is pleased with LinkedIn, and the stock is trading at $230.02 with a market capitalization of $25.74 billion. It touched a high of $237.96 earlier this month soon after the results announcement.