Analyst: LinkedIn To Monetize Mobile In 2013

In her latest Internet trends report yesterday, Mary Meeker made the argument that mobile monetization could outstrip that on the desktop in as little as one to three years. But she acknowledged it’s not there now, with companies such as Pandora, Zynga and Tencent still reaping much less revenue from mobile than the desktop despite fast-growing mobile audiences.

Add LinkedIn to that group. In its first-quarter conference call, the professional network said mobile now accounts for about 22% of its member visit. To tap into that activity, LinkedIn in April released its first official iPad app to go with its collection of smartphone apps. But the company has yet to start monetizing its surging mobile traffic.

In a research note today, JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth says he expects LinkedIn to begin generating ad revenue from mobile in early 2013. “The tablet environment provides natural synergies with the website given its larger screen real estate, and we believe LinkedIn is focused on developing new marketing solutions that would be effective on a smaller screen size,” he wrote.

In a separate note last week, Anmuth also noted improving mobile monetization for Pandora in the first quarter. He estimates mobile revenue now makes up 55% of its total ad sales, up from about 50% last year. The majority of top 50 U.S. advertisers have also bought multi-platform ads on the Internet radio service.

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