LinkedIn Mobile Ads On The Way

Facebook isn’t the only social network looking to better monetize its mobile users. LinkedIn said in its earnings call on Thursday, it will be launching ads in its mobile apps in the future, though it’s not clear just how near a future that will be.

Anthony Ha quotes CEO Jeff Weiner as saying the company is ready to “start to introduce advertising in our mobile solutions”.

“Ready,” to me, indicates sooner rather than later, but we’ll see.

LinkedIn has already seen impressive revenue growth, and mobile ads would add another healthy layer, no doubt. At $167.7 million, the company saw a 105% increase in revenue for the fourth quarter compared to 2010. For the entire year 2011, revenue increased 115% to $522.2 million (from $243.1 million). LinkedIn hasn’t even been public for a year yet.

LinkedIn became much more usable on mobile devices last year, when the company launched a major update to its apps:

Even by the time that was released, the company claimed it had already seen a 400% year-over-year increase in mobile pageviews.

It’s probably about time LinkedIn started making more money from the mobile experience.