TECH NEWS – Citing a “challenging operating environment”, Microsoft Corp pulls LinkedIn out of the Chinese market, marking the withdrawal of the last major US social network in China.

Seven years after its launch, LinkedIn will leave China. US IT giant Microsoft announced on Thursday (14 October) that it would close its professional network by the end of the year, justifying its decision by a “difficult operating environment”. This closure marks the withdrawal of the last major American social network in China, where the authorities have strengthened their control over the Internet sector in recent months.

LinkedIn said a new job application, called InJobs, would soon be launched in China to replace its platform. This simplified version of the social network will focus only on jobs and will not include social feeds or sharing options.

The Redmond, Washington-based group had launched a local version of its platform for the Chinese market in February 2014, with limited functionality, to comply with the country’s strict rules governing the internet.

“While we have had success in helping Chinese members find jobs and economic opportunities, we have not had as much success with the more social aspects of sharing and staying informed,” Mohak Shroff, head of engineering at LinkedIn, reported in a statement.

Call to order

“We also face a challenging operating environment and greater regulatory compliance requirements in China,” he added. According to the Wall Street Journal, LinkedIn received a warning in March from China’s Internet regulator, which gave it 30 days to better regulate its content.

LinkedIn was among the companies hit last year by a broad crackdown by Beijing on the technology sector over content and user privacy. The Chinese government has also called on platforms to promote communist values more consistently.

Microsoft, which bought LinkedIn in 2016 for more than $26 billion, was the last US tech mainstay to have a legal and sustained presence on the Chinese internet, at the cost of censoring some of the content posted.

The social networks Facebook and Twitter have been banned for over a decade. Google left the country in 2010. Amazon’s website is accessible from China, but the online retail giant has never really broken through in a market dominated by local players such as Alibaba and JD.com.

Source: BBC