For the first time, LinkedIn has revealed the sales figures for its premium subscription division, claiming that the division will generate US$1.7 billion in income by 2023 due to an increase in the company’s use of new AI tools.
Since being purchased by Microsoft in 2016, the business-focused social network LinkedIn has not achieved its maximum commercial potential. According to the company’s prior disclosures, it generated $15 billion in revenue in fiscal 2023, of which $7 billion came from the sale of hiring software to corporate recruiters.
However, LinkedIn has been trying to grow its premium membership business over the past year. This service is available to individual users and job seekers and starts at $39.99 per month.
The inclusion of AI features last year, such as the capacity to scan a job advertisement and, based on a job seeker’s resume, evaluate automatically if the seeker could be a good fit, played a significant role in that effort. The AI technology may also automatically produce written messages for job searchers to send to recruiters and assist job seekers in improving their LinkedIn profile to make it more attractive to recruiters.
Chief operating officer of LinkedIn Dan Shapero stated in an interview that the firm saw a 25% increase in LinkedIn premium subscribers in 2023, while the company did not provide an exact statistic.
According to Shapero, preliminary data from LinkedIn indicates that 70% of members who have access to the new AI capabilities have given them a try, and 90% of those users considered them to be helpful. There are still two candidates for every job in the US, according to LinkedIn data, even if the labor market is still tight across industries.
“What we do know is that because of the uncertainty in the broader economy, there are people that are trying to make sure that they have the ability to get the best job that they can and that they’re excited about,” Shapero stated.
