Microsoft Closes LinkedIn in China End of 2021

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LinkedIn Office(businessinsider.com) illustration

LinkedIn has officially announced that it will be closing its services in China. LinkedIn plans to stop operating in China by the end of this year. The decision was announced directly by LinkedIn's Senior Vice President of Engineering, Mohak Shroff, last Thursday (14/10/2021).

"We have taken the decision to discontinue our (LinkedIn) service in China later this year," Shroff said in a blog post.

LinkedIn is a Microsoft-owned social networking site that connects professionals around the world and is used as a job search platform.

According to Shroff, this decision was taken as part of the company's efforts to comply with Chinese government regulations, particularly regarding internet platforms operating in the country.

The strict rules imposed by the Chinese government, also said Shroff also influenced LinkedIn's "wiggle room" and were considered quite challenging.

"We also face a much more challenging operational environment and stringent compliance requirements in China," said Shroff.

LinkedIn plans to launch a new application called InJobs specifically for users in China. Compiled from the LinkedIn Blog, Monday (18/10/2021), the InJobs application will later have the same function as LinkedIn, which is to make it easier for users to find work.

The difference is, InJobs will not display page feeds and will not allow users to share posts or other content such as articles.

"We also want to help companies in China find qualified candidates. For that, later this year, we will launch InJobs, a job search application for China," explained Shroff.

Although the LinkedIn service will stop operating in China, Shroff said that his party will continue to work with local companies, in creating economic opportunities in the bamboo curtain country.

LinkedIn itself has been operating in China since February 2014 or about seven years. In China, LinkedIn has more than 45 million users.