LinkedIn brings its fight with Facebook to mobile

There seems to be no end to the ongoing battle in the mobile arena.

This time, LinkedIn has finally pushed its own mobile app into the hundreds of million users of the social networking site for professionals in a move seen by many as a direct, though long overdue, response to competitors such as Facebook and Twitter.

By merely looking back on LinkedIn’s recent performance in drawing in users to its fold – namely, that its percentage of users in the entirety of social media pales in comparison with that of Facebook and that there is a meager number of people who visit the site on a daily basis – the move by LinkedIn to break the ice and join the mobile race is easy to understand.

It is primarily meant to increase LinkedIn’s user engagement. But prior to LinkedIn’s move to release a mobile app, the company acquired Lynda.com with the same goal of enhancing the way users engage with the site. Then earlier this month, Voyager was debuted. It is an overhauled mobile app developed still by LinkedIn as its proprietary mobile app prior to the launch of the dedicated LinkedIn app.

The LinkedIn app is designed with the goal of providing users with information about all the connections in the network and various other things.

Perhaps this time, LinkedIn will finally be able to increase its mobile engagement with the mobile strategy that comes with the launch of the app. The company pins its hope on the faster search capabilities of its app and the simplicity with which it can be used.

There is another reason why LinkedIn released a mobile app bearing its name. That is because half of users who access LinkedIn use mobile platforms to open the site. Also, nearly half of users who come looking for a job do it via their handsets. So it only makes sense that LinkedIn revamp its mobile app with enhancements that sure will keep users’ loyalty to the site. It is also aimed at drawing in new users who might simply want to get hired easily or connect with other professionals.

The new LinkedIn app is linked to other apps like Pulse, Slide Share, Search and Lookup. The search feature in particular is touted to be 300 times faster than its previous iterations. So LinkedIn also hopes users will spend some more time in the site with the new features added to its mobile app.