Can “Learning Paths” Boost LinkedIn’s Education Revenues?
When LinkedIn (NASDAQ:LNKD) acquired the online learning portal Lynda.com at a valuation of $1.5 billion last year, the company expected the business to generate nearly $90 million in revenues for that year. While we estimate that this business will grow rapidly and account for a significant portion of the company’s revenues in future, LinkedIn now appears to be working on several initiatives to accelerate the revenue generation from this platform. The company recently announced that Linda.com is introducing ‘Learning Paths’ for its subscribers to help them stay ahead in their current jobs or acquire the necessary knowledge and skills if they are looking to make a career pivot. The step by step structured courses in ‘Learning Paths’ include several skills such as Web Development, Digital Marketing and 50 other such programs. We believe this initiative, which is currently targeted towards individual professionals, can also be expanded at an enterprise level, thus boosting LinkedIn’s revenues from this segment.
See our complete analysis for LinkedIn
- Can LinkedIn’s New Salary Benchmark Tool Drive Premium Memberships?
- LinkedIn Reports Solid Q3 Earnings; Microsoft Merger On Track
- What To Expect From LinkedIn’s Q3 Earnings
- LinkedIn’s Next Move To Increase Its User Base In India
- Why Is LinkedIn Focusing On India?
- Here’s How LinkedIn Can Benefit From Expanding Pro-Finder?
Corporate Adoption Can Be The Growth Catalyst
Currently, ‘Learning Paths’ are available to subscribers to Lynda.com and this should attract professionals who are looking to improve their skills for their current job or are preparing for another. However, if LinkedIn is able to market this product effectively to corporate and independent recruiters, it could gain significant traction. Should corporate HR make the program part of the training curriculum for a particular role, the company should be able to accelerate its revenue generation. Some companies design and execute their own training courses to equip employees for a particular role. While these training programs are partially aimed towards providing proprietary knowledge to the employees, there are several technical modules relating to the subject which are common across the industry. LinkedIn’s ‘Learning Paths’ have the potential to replace these technical modules across multiples businesses. For instance, LinkedIn’s “Digital Marketer “ course can help a marketing manager to get up to speed on how to leverage social media for his or her job, thus adding new skills to his or her profile.
According to our estimates, LinkedIn’s “Learning And Development” revenues will grow significantly from nearly $166 million in 2016 to more than $650 million by the end of our forecast period.
We believe that the above growth will primarily come from closer integration of Lynda.com with LinkedIn, as the company cross-sells Lynda.com’s products to its existing corporate and individual customers. Lynda.com is a key player in the online learning market, with its high quality video tutorials on a wide range of topics and business courses. ‘Learning Paths makes Lynda.com’s existing library of courses richer and goal oriented. As it provides the ability to individuals to acquire required skills for a job opportunity (which might be available on LinkedIn), it should be able to integrate Lynda.com more tightly with LinkedIn and accelerate the company’s revenues in future.
View Interactive Institutional Research (Powered by Trefis):
Global Large Cap | U.S. Mid & Small Cap | European Large & Mid Cap
More Trefis Research