The Executive Suite: Talent Solutions a Big Money-Maker for LinkedIn in 4Q

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Talent Solutions a Big Money-Maker for LinkedIn in 4Q

Powerhouse professional network LinkedIn continues to surprise Wall Street, posting a 44 percent leap in quarterly revenue for its final quarter of 2014.

The company’s shares jumped eight percent in after hours trading Thursday, after the company reported revenue for the fourth quarter came in at $643 million compared to the $447 million it posted in the 2013 quarter.

Jeff Weiner

Revenue for the year came in at $2.219 billion, a 45 percent increase compared to $1.529 billion it posted in 2013.

“Q4 was a strong quarter, bringing to a close another successful year of growth and innovation,” said CEO Jeff Weiner in a conference call with analysts.

“One year ago, we began a number of multi-year strategic investments in the platform. We continued our transition from desktop to mobile, and also focused on initiatives in jobs, content, and global expansion. While still early, we made significant progress on these priorities in 2014, and maintained solid growth across all member ecosystem metrics while delivering record financial results.”

A big part of LinkedIn’s success this year is more and more companies are using its service, Talent Solutions, to hire employees. Revenue in that division hit $369 million, up 41 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2013. Talent Solutions revenue represented 57 percent of total revenue in the fourth quarter.

And LinkedIn sees that upward trend continuing as the company expands internationally, garnering new memberships from multiple countries. LinkedIn just entered the Chinese market earlier this year and already China is a large source of new members.

“In the fourth-quarter, more than 75 percent of new members came to LinkedIn from outside the United States,” Weiner said.

Premium Subscriptions are also on the rise, making the company $121 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of 38 percent compared to the same quarter in 2013.