Online radio service Pandora more than doubled revenue in its fiscal second quarter ended July 31 to $67 million from a year ago, beating Wall Street analysts' expectations of about $60 million.
The company -- which announced its first quarterly financial results as a public company Thursday after a June IPO -- posted a loss of $3.2 million, or 4 cents a share. That compares to a loss of $389,000, or 4 cents, a year earlier. Excluding certain costs, it earned 2 cents a share.
Ad revenue in the quarter increased 118% to $58.3 million, while subscription and other revenue added $8.7 million, up 112%. Among key usage metrics, total listening hours grew 125% to 1.8 billion, in line with expectations. Its estimated share of total U.S. radio listening at the end of the second quarter was 3.6%, up from 1.8% a year prior.
Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy also confirmed that a growing proportion of the company's usage and sales are coming from the mobile side. "Pandora's mobile advertising revenue, for the first time, comprised approximately half of total advertising revenue as we lead the way in the nascent but fast growing mobile advertising market," he stated.
In a report previewing Pandora's earnings yesterday, JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth estimated that mobile now accounts for about two-thirds of total listening hours for the service. Separate data released by comScore in June showed that 42% of Pandora's overall audience traffic is coming from mobile, and more monthly visitors are coming from mobile phones and tablets (20.7 million) than home and work PCs (18.2 million).
Looking ahead, Pandora projects revenue to be in the range of $69.5 million to $72.5 million, reflecting growth of between 84% and 92% from 2010. For all of 2011, revenue is forecast to reach between $270 million and $275 million, with a non-GAAP loss of 5 to 7 cents a share. Analysts had expected full-year sales of $259 million and a loss of 11 cents a share.
Pandora raised nearly $235 million through its IPO, but its stock price has since fallen from $16 to about $12 lately, due to concerns about its ad-based business model and increased volatility in the broader market caused by renewed recession fears.
The launch of European music service Spotify in the U.S. last month has also raised questions about how it will impact Pandora's business.
The stock closed Thursday at $12.47, up about 3%, prior to the release of its quarterly earnings report. In after-hours trading, the stock was up almost 4% to $13.