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Friday, August 26, 2011

Pandora making more money from mobile advertising

US music service sees triple-digit revenue increases year-on-year in latest financials.

US personalised radio company Pandora Media saw its revenues leap 117% year-on-year to $67 million in the second quarter of this year, with mobile advertising playing a key role in that growth.

In total, ads accounted for $58.3 million of those revenues, but Pandora broke out the mobile element specifically. "In addition to continued high growth in web revenue, Pandora’s mobile advertising revenue for the first time comprised approximately half of total advertising revenue as we lead the way in the nascent but fast growing mobile advertising market," said CEO Joe Kennedy in a statement.

This is important, because mobile accounts for 70% of Pandora's total usage, thanks to the huge popularity of its smartphone apps in the US. Investors are keen to know whether mobile advertising is increasing at a fast enough rate for the company to turn that usage into profit.

It's not yet. Pandora posted a $1.8 million net loss for Q2, compared to a $1.6 million profit in Q2 2010. However, with $95.3 million of cash in the bank thanks to its recent IPO, the company can afford to focus on user growth for the moment. At the end of Q2 it had 37 million active users, and claims to account for 3.6% of all US radio listening.


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