LinkedIn Announce 101% Increase In Revenue For Q1; Generates $188.5 Million

Professional social media site LinkedIn has announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2012, revealing that its revenue had increased by 101 per cent compared to the same period in 2011. This makes it the seventh straight quarter where the company has experienced an increase greater than 100 per cent year-over-year growth.

Announcing the earnings live from LinkedIn headquarters, revenue for the social media site was $188.5 million with net income reaching $5 million for the first quarter of 2012. Revenue had increased by 101 per cent from $93.9 million during the first quarter of 2011, while net income increased by $2.9 million during the same period.

These increases were generated by LinkedIn’s three main products: Hiring solutions which generated $102.6 million in revenue, marketing solutions which made up $48 million of revenue, and premium subscriptions which earned the company $37.9 million. Each sector experienced a significant increase in revenue compared to the same period in 2011. Hiring solutions experienced an increase of 121 per cent in revenue earned, while marketing solutions and premium subscriptions had a 73 per cent and 91 per cent increase respectively.

User engagement

The site has seen a steady increase in both the number of members on the site and its traffic. LinkedIn currently has over 161 million members signed up, and according to comScore, the site had 103 million unique visitors and 9.4 billion page views during the first quarter of 2012.

The majority of its revenue still comes from the U.S. with the country generating 64 per cent of LinkedIn’s total revenue. The region that comes closest to matching the company is the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) which makes up 23 per cent of total revenue. The company has been expanding its services to Asia in recent times and will need to do so as not only is Asia a growing market, but the company is mostly dependent on the U.S. for generating revenue. A drop in engaged users would mean a drop in revenue, which could be damaging to the site if it continues its dependence on the U.S.

However, LinkedIn also revealed that it had acquired presentation service SlideShare in a $118.8 million deal. According to the Wall Street Journal, the acquisition is comprised of about 45 per cent cash and 55 per cent stock, and is LinkedIn’s way of adding new features to its site to keep its current users engaged. By incorporating SlideShare into its site, it will allow users to create more dynamic content, LinkedIn had added more traditional social media features like status updates to give its users further reason to return to the site when they’re not job hunting or looking to hire.

It also helps that SlideShare share a similar philosophy to LinkedIn as both sites focus on creating a experience suited for professionals. If the deal passes through, the acquisition is expected to be completed during the second quarter of 2012.