LinkedIn is the only US-owned social-media company operating in China as we speak, owing to the adherence of strict governance rules and regulations in the country. Yet it now looks like Microsoft Corp is pulling the plug on LinkedIn in China after about seven operating years’ and they will replace it with a low-end version of the network which will focus only on jobs instead.
LinkedIn senior vice-president Mohak Shroff blogged, “We’re facing a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China.” They did also add that it didn’t find similar success in social aspects of social sharing and staying informed as it did globally. “Given this, we’ve made the decision to sunset the current localized version of LinkedIn, which is how people in China access LinkedIn’s global social media platform, later this year.”
California-based LinkedIn has been a Microsoft owned entity since its acquisition back in 2016, and it has found major success around the globe where employers, employees, and job seekers connect with one another. Its social-media-esque features also help to share and building a professional network. As the company stated it will replace LinkedIn in China with a more job-focused network which will be called InJobs. InJobs will be launched later this year, and will not have any social-media-esque features explained above.
“Later this year, we will launch InJobs, a new, standalone jobs application for China. InJobs will not include a social feed or the ability to share posts or articles. We will also continue to work with Chinese businesses to help them create economic opportunity,” said Shroff in the blog post.
