Commentary

Can Mobile Lift LinkedIn's Ship?

Change is rarely a painless process. Consider LinkedIn, which is taking a beating on Wall Street as it tries to reinvent itself as a mobile-first platform.

In light of poor first-quarter guidance, the company’s stock tanked nearly 40% on Friday.

LinkedIn is expecting revenue of about $820 million in the first quarter -- considerably less than analysts’ average estimates of $867.1 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Rather than a hindrance to growth, however, analysts see LinkedIn’s mobile awakening as necessary to long-term sustainability and success.

Particularly critical is Project Voyager -- a faster and more intuitive app that LinkedIn debuted last December -- according to RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney.

“We believe this app could lead to greater engagement on the service,” Mahaney wrote in a research note issued earlier this week.

Since the launch of Voyager, LinkedIn says mobile engagement and sharing are up by nearly 40%, year-over-year.

Overall, mobile grew about 300% faster than overall member activity during the fourth quarter, and now represents 57% of all traffic, LinkedIn reported on Thursday.

At the moment, however, it’s not clear how better mobile engagement can help LinkedIn’s struggling marketing-services business -- which connects companies with potential customers -- and its weakening recruiter business.

1 comment about "Can Mobile Lift LinkedIn's Ship?".
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  1. Michael Elling from IVP Capital, LLC, February 5, 2016 at 1:13 p.m.

    Linkedin's mobile interface(s) are terrible.  Very hard to navigate.  Their overall usability and usefulness has gone down, not up over the past 2-3 years.  It's hard to find things and I absolutely hate not getting a free inmail to someone who has invited me to connect whom I don't know or don't know well.

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