LinkedIn membership rises 19% to 433 million, increases revenue 35% to $861 million

LinkedIn has reported its Q1 2016 earnings with $861 million in revenue and an earnings per share of $0.74. Its user numbers also grew 19 percent to 433 million, something the company called its “strongest net-add quarter since the beginning of 2014.”

Wall Street analysts had been expecting $828.47 million in revenue for the quarter and an EPS of $0.56. This also is the first quarter since the professional social networking company forecasted weak guidance. In Q4 2015, LinkedIn predicted revenue to be approximately $820 million with EPS of $0.55 for Q1.

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Shares in the company closed the day up 3.49 percent at $123.00 and are up 3.50 percent in after-hours trading after spiking as high as 14 percent right after the market closed.

All of LinkedIn’s three products saw increases in revenue. Talent solutions generated $558 million, which is a 41 percent year-over-year increase, while marketing solutions reported a 29 percent annual increase of $154 million. Premium subscription revenue increased 22 percent from last year to $149 million.

In terms of users, from a quarter-over-quarter perspective, LinkedIn has added 29 million more to its roll, which chief executive Jeff Weiner attributed to the engagement value of the company’s service. In an investor letter, he wrote, “Our core operating metrics saw accelerated growth — unique visiting metrics grew 9 percent to an average of 106 million members a month and member page views grew 34 percent.”

One of the things that LinkedIn needs to work on is showing its users why they need to be coming back beyond simply connecting with people and updating their online resume. Doing this not only increases engagement, but will benefit LinkedIn’s other product offerings, including those associated with recruiters and advertisers.

In the past few months, a few updates have been made in an effort to drive more engagement, including launching its updated Recruiter app, a tool for college students to find their first full-time job, Learning Paths for Lynda.com, and more. It also seems that LinkedIn’s revamped flagship mobile app has reinvigorated its users and resulted in more activity taking place on the professional social network.

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