LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) has been facing the same problems that every social network has encountered in the last couple of years. As the world goes mobile, how are they supposed to keep their users engaged and looking at advertisements? The company revealed its new method for doing just that today, and investors appear to be impressed.
Pulse, a mobile news-feed application that LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) acquired earlier this year, has been fully integrated with the enterprise social network. The application, now called LinkedIn Pulse, is now the main way that users will receive their social news from LinkedIn. The application will replace the old service LinkedIn Today.
LinkedIn Pulse launch
In a blog post about the launch, LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) said that the full integration was “the first step of many we will be taking to ensure you’re getting a consistent and seamless content experience that is tailored to you.”
LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) acquired Pulse for around $90 million last April, and it has quickly turned the company into something it can actively use to improve the experience of its users. LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) has impressed in the last year, but that doesn’t mean that there are no troubles on the horizon.
LinkedIn performance
LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) has performed incredibly through 2013 on the back of a stock market boom, and a boom in the prices of social networks across the board. The firm’s stock has grown by more than 85% since the year began, and today’s news sent the firm’s shares up by more than 2%. LinkedIn has been performing well, but it still faces problems as it tries to grow into its share price.
As of today the social network is valued at more than 700 times its 2012 earnings. There is a large amount of growth priced into LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), and the company will have to keep hitting targets investors set for it in order to avoid a crash in the price of its stock.
Share prices have already fallen from highs of close to $250 seen in the third quarter of the year. The company’s stock currently stands at around $215 per share. Incremental improvements like the introduction of LinkedIn Pulse are a positive for the company, but they are not going to grow revenue by enough to meet the investors goals.
