Microsoft's social platform LinkedIn announced on Wednesday, August 9th, that it would cease its operations in China, ending its nearly decade-long presence in the Chinese market. This move signifies the departure of a major Western social media platform from China.
Currently, when accessing LinkedIn's domain within China, users are redirected to a page that provides services for corporate clients. The mobile app for "LinkedIn Workplace" displays a message stating, "Unable to load data."
As one of the few successful social media platforms operated by a U.S. tech company in China, LinkedIn, as the world's largest professional networking site, launched its Chinese version in 2014.
Due to the strict regulatory and censorship environment of the Chinese internet, LinkedIn introduced a localized job-seeking platform called "LinkedIn Workplace" in 2021, citing a "more challenging" operating environment and stricter requirements in China.
In comparison to the international version, users of "LinkedIn Workplace" were only able to conduct searches and were not allowed to post or share articles like their international counterparts.
In addition to regulatory pressures, LinkedIn also faced fierce competition from local Chinese brands such as Maimai and BOSS Zhipin. The decision to launch a localized platform seems to have failed to salvage LinkedIn's crisis in China.
On May 9th of this year, LinkedIn announced that "LinkedIn Workplace" would officially cease its services starting from August 9th, and users' personal account data would be deleted.
