Author: ZEN SOO
Associated Press
Hong Kong (Associated Press) – For nearly seven years, LinkedIn has been the only major Western social network platform still operating in China. People like 32-year-old Jason Liu see it as an important career improvement tool.
Microsoft, which acquired the platform in 2016, said in October that it would withdraw on the grounds that “the operating environment is more challenging”. By the end of this year, Liu will no longer be able to access the localized version of LinkedIn.
“It’s a shame,” said Liu, who works in the technology industry in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, who uses the site to communicate with other professionals online. “LinkedIn provides me with a platform for publishing work results, such as my achievements and promotions, which are not always suitable for publishing on other platforms such as WeChat.”
Microsoft said that LinkedIn will be replaced in China by a recruitment website called InJobs, which does not have the function of social media feeds and shared content.
LinkedIn has more than 54 million users in China, which is the second largest market after the United States. The departure of LinkedIn will prevent them from using platforms to connect with professionals in other countries. In China, no one has similar global influence.
Liu said that LinkedIn is “irreplaceable.” “Many career-related platforms, such as Liepin or BOSS Direct Employment, are purely job search sites,” he said.
In order to access LinkedIn’s international sites in the future, Liu said that he must use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service to bypass any blocking, even if it makes the process more troublesome.
Ouyang Wei, who works for a foreign Internet company in Shanghai, said that he found two jobs through LinkedIn and often uses it to keep in touch with colleagues abroad.
“I am worried whether I can still reach contacts who use the international version of LinkedIn, and whether it will be difficult to contact human resource managers (on the new version),” he said.
It is unclear whether InJobs will retain these features, and LinkedIn did not immediately comment.
Foreign social networking platforms in China have long faced the challenge of balancing users’ ability to post the content they want with government regulations requiring censorship of content deemed unacceptable for political or other reasons.
Some foreign companies, such as Google, withdrew from China because they were unwilling to comply with these regulations.
“The biggest challenge facing Western technology companies in China is the same as the biggest challenge facing Chinese technology companies—a constantly changing and arbitrary regulatory environment, accompanied by new crackdowns, rules, and pressures to enforce the CCP’s politicized review and surveillance. “The research institute Sarah Cook said. Director of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan of Freedom House, a non-governmental organization.
She said that with Chinese President Xi Jinping “more intolerant of dissent and open dialogue” than five years ago, the situation has changed.
Cook said that as the Chinese people’s contact with the international community is increasingly restricted, the Chinese are suffering losses.
There are Chinese platforms that provide social networking and content functions, such as Mai Mai, but they are not global and are usually favored by white-collar workers in the Chinese technology industry.
“The size of Maimai in China is already twice that of LinkedIn, which shows that LinkedIn is not without local alternatives,” said Michael Norris, research strategy manager at AgencyChina, a Shanghai consulting firm.
“However, the question remains whether any platform is willing to bear the moderate burden of the exchange and discussion of industry news and opinions,” he said.
LinkedIn suspended new user registrations in March because it reviewed its compliance with local laws after being criticized by the authorities and users dissatisfied with content regulation.
In September, when American journalist Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian complained that the company had censored the content of her user profile in China, the company attracted unfavorable attention. Prior to this, several other scholars and journalists on its Chinese platform were also subject to several other personal data checks.
Not everyone is sad about the disappearance of LinkedIn.
Fang Zhang, who works for a government-supported organization in Beijing, said LinkedIn does not list job opportunities for Chinese civil servants or government organizations.
“I registered a LinkedIn account at university, but after I graduated and started working, I never used it,” he said. “It will not help my career development unless one day I decide to join the private sector or a foreign company.”
Emchel Wu, who works in advertising in Shanghai, said that she rarely uses LinkedIn for social networking anyway.
“It’s a bit awkward to show all your contacts,” she said. “Since I joined LinkedIn, I have added all four people. This is not that useful to me.”
