Ever the professional, LinkedIn again proved to Wall Street that it can deliver on promises. The social network for workers came in fairly strong with its second quarter earnings report and posted $228.2 million in revenue, which was higher than expected, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.16.
In the second quarter, LinkedIn grew revenue by 89 percent year-over-year. Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $18.1 million. Wall Street was anticipating earnings per share of $0.16 on revenue of $215.8 million for the quarter.
The professional network also said that it has more than 175 million members, up 50 percent from one year ago, and now sees two member sign-ups per second. The company also reported 131 million unique visitors, when counting visitors to SlideShare, for the month of June. On mobile, LinkedIn uniques grew 68 percent and pageviews jumped by 60 percent, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said on a call with investors and analysts.
“LinkedIn had a strong second quarter with all of our key operating and financial metrics showing solid performance,” Weiner said in a statement. “Our ongoing investment in product innovation drove healthy engagement as measured by unique visiting members and member page views, and our three revenue streams all experienced significant growth.”
The bulk of LinkedIn’s revenue continues to come from the company’s hiring solutions products. In Q2, hiring services brought in $121.6 million, or 53 percent of total revenue. Marketing products contributed $63.1 million to the bottom line, up 64 percent year-over-year, and paid memberships grew by 82 percent from Q2 2011 to account for $43.5 million in revenue.
The company began testing mobile monetization in June by displaying ads in its iPad application, Weiner said. LinkedIn’s mobile monetization strategy doesn’t just revolve around advertising, Weiner added. The company believes it can further monetize its money-making products on mobile and provide additional value to premium subscribers and hiring solutions customers.
On the product and business front, LinkedIn’s second quarter was an aggressive one, with a celebrated iPad application release, a Windows Phone app, an acquisition of SlideShare, and a rumored purchase of Digg patents.
The professional network, however, experienced its fair share of disastrous events at the hands of others during the quarter. The company was a victim of a security breach that saw millions of user passwords leaked online. Twitter slightly hurt the company as well when it, in a very public maneuver, shut off LinkedIn’s access to its stream of tweets.
Q1 2012 was also a stellar quarter for the professional social network. LinkedIn posted $188.5 million in revenue and earnings per share of $0.15. It was also the seventh straight quarter of 100 percent year-over-year revenue growth for the company.
A public company for 14 months, LinkedIn has been the shining star of consumer-facing Internet companies, though it too has been hurt by Facebook’s poor-performing stock and a volatile market. The stock closed down 2 percent at $93.51 a share Thursday, but trading remains active in after-hours sales, with shares gaining significant ground.
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