LinkedIn gets late Christmas present from Chinese rival Tianji as parent Viadeo pulls the plug after failing to keep pace with mobile telephony revolution
Site’s sudden shutdown on Sunday leaves 25m China-based users in limbo
Professional networking service LinkedIn has been struggling to gain a foothold in China since it arrived in 2014, but it received a late Christmas present from domestic rival Tianji on Sunday when the latter announced that it would be shutting down.
Tianji left its 25 million China-based users in limbo with the surprise move, which was apparently motivated by its parent company Viadeo’s desire to refocus its energies on its users in Europe.
A message on Tianji’s website informs visitors that it ended its services by December 27. It redirects users to Viadeo, the professional social networking launched in Paris in 2004.
Tianji also said that in order to protect user privacy, all the site’s data will be deleted, leaving no way for its users to save any of their information.
Viadeo acquired its Chinese subsidiary in 2007 to tap the world’s biggest internet market. Prior to the shutdown, Viadeo claimed to have 65 million users worldwide.
In a statement, it said it had decided to shift its focus to the French market, and would be shutting down the Tianji branch in China before the end of the year.