LinkedIn, the 12-year-old professional, social network ended the last quarter of 2015 with 414 million members, an increase of 3.43 percent from the last quarter. Unique visitors were up 7 percent to an average of 100 million per month and member pageviews grew 26 percent.
Mobile usage, that grew three times faster than overall member activity, now represents 57 percent of the total traffic to LinkedIn. LinkedIn mobile app saw a makeover in December 2015 with the hope to improve the users’ experience. The earlier app was often criticized for being jumbled up and difficult to navigate.
The company reported adjusted earnings of 94 cents per share on USD 862 million in revenue in its fourth quarter with a growth of 34 percent. This beats the analysts forecast of 78 cents per share. However, Wall Street expected LinkedIn to deliver 74 cents earnings per share on revenue of USD 867 million in the first quarter of 2016, but LinkedIn has recorded a modest revenue guidance range of USD 820 million with projected earnings of 55 cents per share. As a result, LinkedIn’s shares have taken a steep dive.
“Q4 was a strong quarter for LinkedIn, bringing to a close a successful year of growth and innovation against our long-term roadmap. Our road map will be supported by greater emphasis on simplicity, prioritization, and ultimate ROI and investment impact. Our strategy in 2016 will increasingly focus on a narrower set of high value, high impact initiatives with the goal of strengthening and driving leverage across our entire portfolio of businesses.” said Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn in a statement.
LinkedIn has acquired Connectifier, a two-year old startup with technology designed to assist recruiters with talent acquisition.
“The acquisition of Connectifier will further strengthen our core products and accelerate our product roadmap, leveraging powerful machine learning-based searching and matching technology to help recruiters and hiring managers find the perfect talent fit,” LinkedIn said in their earnings statement.
