LinkedIn Updates iPhone, Android Apps With A Personalized Activity Stream, Better Navigation, And Ads
With the ink still drying on last week's acquisition of news aggregation app Pulse, LinkedIn continues to double down on mobile, the fastest-growing consumer service among its 200 million members.
Context & Ripple Effects
LinkedIn had already made its iPhone experience more social with a more Facebook-like app redesign, while its earlier LinkedIn News and homepage redesign established content as part of the service. The Pulse acquisition extends that content direction as LinkedIn updates both major mobile apps.
The new personalized stream, navigation changes and ads turn mobile from a profile-access channel into a place for repeated content consumption and monetization among LinkedIn’s member base.
First-order effects
- LinkedIn’s iPhone and Android users receive a personalized activity stream and revised navigation, changing how they discover updates in the mobile apps.
- LinkedIn gains an advertising surface within its mobile activity stream, giving advertisers access to users in a more frequently refreshed part of the product.
Second-order effects
- The Pulse acquisition gives LinkedIn a complementary news-aggregation asset as it builds a more content-led mobile experience, increasing the strategic value of keeping users inside LinkedIn’s apps.
- Advertisers seeking professional audiences gain another LinkedIn placement, putting pressure on LinkedIn to make stream ads fit the utility of the activity feed rather than disrupt it.
Third-order effects
- If LinkedIn can pair professional identity, personalized content and mobile advertising, its business shifts toward a feed-based media product as well as a destination for profiles and networking.
- The move is part of a broader platform pattern in which acquisitions such as Pulse support expansion into adjacent engagement formats that can create additional commercial inventory.
The trend: Professional networks are evolving into mobile content feeds, using personalization and advertising to convert member attention into a larger business surface.