LinkedIn adding advertisements to mobile apps

Professional networking platform LinkedIn will integrate advertisements into its mobile applications. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner announced the move Thursday during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call; Weiner said LinkedIn has been working to implement an advertising infrastructure but offered few additional details on the effort, stating only that the firm will "start to introduce advertising in our mobile solutions."

Weiner said mobile is now LinkedIn's fastest-growing category, generating 15 percent of all unique member visits. "We're seeing a sharp rise in activations across both [Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL)] iOS platform and [Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG)] Android," he added. "We're seeing more activations in iOS but both are growing very healthy rates." Weiner also said LinkedIn plans to invest in improving and expanding its mobile services over the year ahead.

LinkedIn launched redesigned iOS and Android apps in August 2011, concurrently introducing an HTML5-based web app optimized for all current mobile browsers. The LinkedIn app touts improved speeds across all features, including search and update streams. The app also reorganizes content into four key areas: Updates (including new developments within the user's network as well as LinkedIn Today alerts), Inbox (which combines all invitations and messages in one place), You (the user's profile, connections and information sharing tools) and Groups & More (browsing and interaction solutions as well as the People You May Know feature). Based on user feedback, LinkedIn Mobile now starts with the Update stream and adds access to millions of LinkedIn Groups discussions.

The LinkedIn network spans more than 150 million professionals across 200 countries, including executives from all current Fortune 500 companies. The company reported fourth quarter revenues of $167.7 million, compared to $81.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

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