LinkedIn Revenues Double As Membership Rises

Career networking website LinkedIn has seen its fourth quarter revenues double compared to a year ago as another 14 million members joined up.

LinkedIn took in £106m ($167.7m) in revenue in the quarter ending on December 31, a 105% increase from the same period a year earlier.

Profit for the quarter was £4.4m compared with the £3.4m the company made in the same three-month period in 2010.

The business networking service added another 14 million profiles during the final three months of last year - an increase of more than 10% - bringing its total membership to 145 million.

The announcement, on Thursday, saw the company's stock price surge, leaving its shares up by 9.1% to $82.78 each on close of trading in the US.

LinkedIn chief executive Jeff Weiner said: "[The fourth quarter] once again exceeded our expectations for member engagement and business growth.

"It was a fitting end to a memorable year in which we reinforced our position as the pre-eminent professional network on the web."

California-based LinkedIn launched in 2003 and made its stock market debut in May of last year in the hope of raising money for expansion.

The career-oriented online social network, which boasts members in 200 different countries and territories, recently opened a research and development centre in India.

Weiner added: "We believe continued focus on our members and technology infrastructure positions us well for accelerated product innovation in 2012."

The fourth quarter results also revealed that more companies have been paying to get additional access to LinkedIn's membership.

LinkedIn gets more than two-thirds of its revenue from fees it charges companies, recruiting services and other people who want broader access to the profiles and other data on the company's website. The rest comes from advertising.

The results come in the wake of the world's largest social networking website, Facebook, launching itself as a public company.