LinkedIn’s China retreat stems from regulatory and competitive pressures as local recruitment platforms prosper
- The decision comes just two weeks before China’s Personal Information Protection Law, one of the world’s strictest data protection laws, takes effect
- LinkedIn had only made limited headway in the China, where jobseekers and professional networkers have an array of alternatives to choose from
The retreat from China of LinkedIn, the professional social network owned by Microsoft, is the result of Beijing’s tighter regulation of the domestic internet sector as well as tougher market competition, according to industry insiders and analysts.
LinkedIn cited “a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China” for its decision to withdraw from the mainland market in a blog post on Thursday.
For example, WeChat, the omnipresent social media platform run by Tencent Holdings, announced this week that it will suspend or shut down 1,463 accounts, as it moves to comply with Beijing’s stricter regulation of online content and opinion.
LinkedIn entered China in 2014 and its partial exit makes it the last major US social media provider to pull out of the country. It has been chastised by US lawmakers in the past for censoring posts and blocking accounts that might offend leaders in Beijing – a precondition for its operation in China.
Others said LinkedIn had only made limited headway in the China market, where jobseekers and professionals looking to network have an array of domestic alternatives to choose from. Human resource professionals and jobseekers can, for example, use platforms such as Zhaopin and Maimai, which have better coverage in China.