Key Metrics
We regularly review a number of metrics, including the following key metrics, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections and make strategic decisions.
• Number of Registered Members. We define the number of registered members in our network as the number of individual users who have created a member profile on our website as of the date of measurement. We believe the number of registered members is a key indicator of the growth of our network and our ability to receive the benefits of the network effects resulting from such growth. Growth in our member base depends, in part, on our ability to successfully develop and market our solutions to professionals who have not yet become members of our network. Member growth will also be contingent on our ability to include additional languages on our website and continued international expansion of our member base. We typically experience slower member growth in the third quarter of the year as a result of decreased Internet usage by professionals during the summer months. We believe that a higher number of registered members will result in increased sales of our hiring and marketing solutions and premium subscriptions, as customers will have access to a larger pool of professional talent.
• Unique Visitors. We define unique visitors as users who have visited our website at least once during a month regardless of whether they are a member, based on data provided by comScore, a leading provider of digital marketing intelligence. We view unique visitors as a key indicator of growth in our brand awareness among users and whether we are providing our members with useful tools and applications, thereby increasing member engagement. We believe that a higher level of member engagement will result in increased sales of our hiring and marketing solutions and premium subscriptions, as customers will have access to a larger pool of professional talent. Growth in unique visitors will be driven by our international expansion, growth in the number of registered members and improvements to features and products that drive member traffic to our website.
• Page Views. We define page views as the number of pages on our website that users view during the measurement period based on data provided by comScore. Similar to unique visitors, we believe page views is a key indicator for gaining insight into whether we are increasing member engagement and whether our members are deriving value from our solutions. We expect growth in page views will be driven, in part, by improvements in features and products that drive member traffic to our website, growth in the number of registered members and international expansion. However, page views may not capture all of the value that our members and other users derive from our solutions because part of the benefit of certain products and features is that the member or user does not need to visit our website to receive value from our platform. For example, members can respond to emails they receive from other members without accessing their LinkedIn account or our website.
• Number of LinkedIn Corporate Solutions Customers. We define the number of LinkedIn Corporate Solutions customers as the number of enterprises and professional organizations that we have under active contracts for this product as of the date of measurement. Our LinkedIn Corporate Solutions include LinkedIn Recruiter, Job Slots, LinkedIn Referral Engine (beta), LinkedIn Recruitment Media and LinkedIn Career Pages. We believe the number of LinkedIn Corporate Solutions customers is a key indicator of our market penetration in the online recruiting market, the productivity of our field sales organization and the value that our products bring to both large and small enterprises and professional organizations. The number of customers subscribing to our LinkedIn Corporate Solutions product is particularly important to monitor given that we expect revenue from LinkedIn Corporate Solutions to continue to represent a significant portion of our total net revenue, and we are significantly investing in our ability to successfully sell this unique product in a new and rapidly evolving market.
(1) The number of registered members is higher than the number of actual members due to various factors. For more information, see “Risk Factors—The number of our registered members is higher than the number of actual members, and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members.”
(2) Worldwide data provided by comScore, a leading provider of digital marketing intelligence. Beginning in August 2009, comScore changed the method by which it counts traffic, which makes prior data not meaningful for period over period comparison purposes.
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