After Instagram and WhatsApp, US LinkedIn Finally Withdraws from China

LinkedIn, the world's largest business network platform owned by the American company Microsoft (MS), has decided to effectively withdraw from the Chinese market.

According to Bloomberg on the 9th (local time), LinkedIn will shut down its China-exclusive job search app 'InCareer' two years after its launch in August. LinkedIn's mainland China membership, which first started Chinese language services in 2014, once reached 52 million.

The once promising China business faced a sudden halt due to government regulations. LinkedIn ended its social media services in 2021 following increased censorship by authorities and launched InCareer at the end of that year. To avoid government censorship, social media features such as post uploads were removed, but this caused LinkedIn to fall far behind domestic competitors.

With the termination of InCareer, LinkedIn will completely exit the platform business in the Chinese market, joining other American IT companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Gmail was blocked in China in 2014, Instagram in 2016, and WhatsApp in 2017.

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky announced in a statement that 716 global jobs will be cut due to management difficulties.

In China, the InCareer business withdrawal will lead to the downsizing of product and engineering teams. However, a minimal workforce will be maintained to support employment, marketing, and employee training for foreign companies operating in China. This department will operate with reduced staff as part of the global job cuts. The specific scale of layoffs was not disclosed.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.