LinkedIn's Q1: Despite a loss, revenue up 46 percent; exceeds targets

After several weeks of new roll-outs and upgrades for its recruiting and marketing products, LinkedIn reported first quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company reported a net loss of $13.4 million, or 11 cents per share (statement).

Non-GAAP earnings were 38 cents per share on a revenue of $473.2 million, up 46 percent year-over-year.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of 34 cents per share on a revenue of $466.57 million.

Emphasizing the digital publishing plan with hinting at the larger economic graph roadmap, CEO Jeff Weiner reflected on the quarter in prepared remarks:

The first quarter was strong for LinkedIn in terms of our member engagement and financial results. We made significant progress against several strategic priorities including expanding internationally with our China launch, extending our shift to content marketing, and furthering our goal to make LinkedIn the definitive professional publishing platform by giving members the ability to publish long-form content.

For the current quarter, Wall Street expects LinkedIn to deliver earnings of 36 cents per share on a revenue of $505.08 million. LinkedIn followed up with a revenue guidance range between $500 million and $505 million.

For the full year, LinkedIn projects revenue will fall between $2.06 billion and $2.08 billion.

By department, revenue was on the rise across the board. Here's a closer look at LinkedIn's Q1, by the numbers:

• Talent: $275.9 million in revenue, up 50 percent y-o-y; accounted for 58 percent of total revenue
• Marketing: $101.8 million in revenue, up 36 percent y-o-y; accounted for 22 percent of total revenue
• Premium Subscriptions: $95.5 million in revenue, up 46 percent y-o-y; accounted for 20 percent of total revenue
• U.S. revenue: $284.9 million, accounting for 60 percent of total revenue
• International revenue: $188.3 million, accounting for 40 percent of total revenue

Linkedin chief financial officer Steve Sordello attributed these figures to "sustained investment, resulting in healthy member trends and balanced growth across our three diverse product lines."

Earlier this month, the professional social network boasted it surpassed the 300 million-mark for monthly active users worldwide. The social media company translated that to an average of two new members each minute with 186 million visiting the platform each month on average.

Still, LinkedIn has ambitious plans to eventually grow to have profiles for the entire global workforce, roughly 3.3 billion and counting.

Charts via LinkedIn Investor Relations