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.
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.