LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) is on its way to improve its user engagement further through a major update of its mobile applications on Android and iOS based devices. The company plans to aggressively pursue growth in the hand-held device segment with its mobile page views having already increased by 400% year-on-year (YoY) in Q2 2011. [1] LinkedIn competes with other online job portals such as Monster (NYSE:MWW) and Craigslist. It also competes in the online advertising space with Facebook, Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG).
We currently hold a price estimate of $34 for LinkedIn’s stock, which is well below the current market price. Refer to our article Why LinkedIn’s Fundamentals Don’t Support the Market Price on why we think the market is getting ahead of itself on the company.
LinkedIn’s Motto: Keep It Nice ‘n’ Simple
LinkedIn’s recent initiatives are increasingly directed towards improving user engagement by making recruitment/job search simpler than before. A fresh example is the new “Apply With LinkedIn” web plug-in, which we discussed in our recent note on the same.
With the updated iOS and Android apps, LinkedIn developers hope to enhance performance by 2 to 10 times across all features including job search and updating users’ streams. [2] If the app performs as expected, we could see a significant upside to the monthly number of page views by a LinkedIn visitor – a sign of increased user engagement. This bodes well for LinkedIn’s display ads segment, which has already grown by over 100% in revenue for Q2 2011.
See our complete analysis for LinkedIn’s stock here
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