LinkedIn’s mum or dad firm Microsoft has launched its newest earnings outcomes, which incorporates notes on LinkedIn’s evolving efficiency, and the place it’s seeing energy.
And also you’ll by no means guess:
LinkedIn noticed “report engagement” as soon as once more within the interval, which it has in each reporting interval for the reason that daybreak of time.
Nicely, the daybreak of LinkedIn below Microsoft not less than. The tech large acquired LinkedIn again in 2016, and since then, Microsoft has solely included minor efficiency notes just like the one above concerning the skilled social app inside its broader firm report.
And each one, besides a single end in July 2020, has been nearly the identical, noting “report” engagement. Each single quarter.
Which appears unattainable, however there’s not lots of information to go on, so it’s unattainable to refute, or to litigate any information your self. You simply should take Satya and Co.’s phrase that LinkedIn is admittedly seeing report quantities of utilization.
However for added context:
LinkedIn at the moment claims over a billion “members” around the globe, a quantity that continues to develop yearly.
Due to course it does, as a result of LinkedIn isn’t reporting energetic customers, which might fluctuate over time. It’s reporting the overall quantity of people that’ve signed as much as the app.
Which is a ineffective stat. Billions of individuals have signed as much as each main social media app. Twitter, for instance, was reportedly seeking to unlock over 1.5 billion dormant @handles shortly after Elon Musk took over on the helm.
However that doesn’t imply that LinkedIn has an addressable viewers of a billion individuals, and even near that determine.
Certainly, primarily based on the information that we do have, LinkedIn’s EU utilization information (which it has to share below the DSA), we are able to see that, in Europe not less than, solely round 40% of LinkedIn’s complete members are usually logging into the app.
That, presumably, would carry over to different areas. So actually, LinkedIn solely has round 400 million precise, energetic customers.
I don’t know why LinkedIn has caught with this metric as an indicator of its success, nor why the broader market accepts it. However then once more, “a billion” members sounds higher than “400 million” customers, and if that’s all they should share, why change it?
Hokey metrics apart, Microsoft has additionally reported that LinkedIn income grew 9% within the newest interval, with all of its enterprise parts seeing stronger efficiency.
LinkedIn continued to increase and enhance its advert choices in the latest quarter, together with up to date advert attribution, and the addition of paid boosting for private posts. It additionally continues to lean into AI, guided by Microsoft’s broader partnership with OpenAI, with extra AI help parts for job seekers, and a push in the direction of the “Agentic Period” of connection.
LinkedIn additionally up to date its hyperlink previews in natural posts final Might, making the preview photos a lot smaller for non-LinkedIn Premium subscribers, and it’d be fascinating to know the way that’s impacted general Premium take-up (Premium Subscriptions, you’ll notice, is particularly talked about as a development factor in Microsoft’s overview).
(Replace: In Microsoft’s earnings webcast, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reported that LinkedIn’s Premium income exceeded $2 billion in 2024, up from $1.7 billion in 2023.)
LinkedIn’s additionally making a much bigger push on video content material, which is the fastest-growing factor within the app. LinkedIn says that its TikTok-like immersive video feed noticed 36% utilization development final yr, and according to this, it’s now additionally testing a bigger video playback window in the primary feed.
It additionally added a brand new in-app sport final quarter, and it’s reported that its fundamental puzzle video games are catching on, with 80% of customers who play a sport returning to play the next day.
I doubt that puzzle video games are ever going to be a serious LinkedIn factor, however it might be one other issue serving to to contribute to that “report” engagement.
On the similar time, one other of LinkedIn’s engagement development parts did take successful, with the platform pressured to take away its gold “Prime Voice” badges for contributions to Collaborative Articles.
Collaborative Articles stem from questions generated by LinkedIn’s AI, then pitched to members. The principle lure of contributing to such had been that by doing so, you will get these badges, which might help to make your profile stand out in-stream.
However now, LinkedIn’s eliminated them, as a result of too many non-experts had been dishonest the system. Which suggests the motivation for contributing to those posts is now far much less.
LinkedIn reported final March that Collaborative Articles had seen a 4x improve in weekly member contributions quarter-over-quarter.
Hopefully engagement with its video games can counter that dip.
Total, there’s not a heap to go on with LinkedIn’s numbers, although it does appear that the platform is seeing extra engagement, particularly with video content material.
For those who had been to take something away from this, that’s the place I’d be wanting, in investing in video to increase your LinkedIn presence, whereas additionally participating with related conversations to make extra connections.
