In 2011, LinkedIn’s advertising revenue surpassed Twitter’s.
LinkedIn reported $154.6 million in advertising revenue for 2011, while Twitter’s estimated advertising sales were $139.5 million. The comparison was notable because LinkedIn was known primarily as a professional-networking service, whereas Twitter was widely viewed as a major consumer social platform.
LinkedIn’s advertising business was part of a broader revenue mix that also included premium subscriptions and recruiting products. Its professional user data—such as job history, skills and industry—gave advertisers a way to target audiences by career and business characteristics.
This fact is easy to misread as saying LinkedIn had greater total revenue than Twitter. The comparison concerned advertising revenue specifically, and the figures were reported or estimated for the 2011 calendar year. Facebook, meanwhile, was a much larger advertising competitor and was not the company named in this comparison.