By JIANG Jingling

On May 9, LinkedIn China announced that the local platform InCareer will close on August 9 when all of its products and services, including the mobile app, website and WeChat mini-program, will be shut down.

InCareer was a job-seeking and recruitment platform launched by LinkedIn in China in 2021, helping members to apply for positions in global enterprises, and recruiters to mine talent.

Short, inglorious career

Since 2014, LinkedIn has been trying to make a name for itself in China. Until 2021, LinkedIn supplied “Career Social Networking” products for the Chinese market. Chinese users could display their career history, share career updates, and expand their professional networks. In October 2021, LinkedIn shut down its social-media products in China and launched a pure recruitment site.

Founded in 2003, LinkedIn is the world’s largest career networking platform, with over 900 million members in more than 200 countries. According to its official website, LinkedIn currently has 54 million users in China, ranking fourth after the United States, India, and Brazil.

In 2014, LinkedIn established a JV to solve compliance problems. In 2015, Derek Shen, then president of LinkedIn China, said “LinkedIn can only attract people who speak English with overseas backgrounds or multinational company backgrounds” and he wanted to change it.

Shen proposed creating a local app, Chitu, to increase the number of local Chinese companies and make LinkedIn more “down-to-earth.” Then in 2017, Shen resigned and in 2019, Chitu was discontinued.

One-stop career development

Shen has described the ups and downs of Chitu in his personal account. His list of reasons why Chitu failed includes slow foreign applications and Chitu’s inability to cut ties with LinkedIn, claiming excessive internal resistance.

Shen’s emphasis on social networking mainly stems from LinkedIn’s main competitor in China, Maimai. Founded in 2013, Maimai positioned itself as China’s professional social networking platform and quickly grew, attracting users through its anonymous gossip community, which LinkedIn lacked.

LU?Jian took over from Shen at a time when Chinese rivals like Maimai began to aggressively compete, while LinkedIn was constrained by multiple factors. In 2019, Lu turned LinkedIn in China into a “one-stop career development platform,” shifting away from recruitment.

Misguided, half-hearted

LinkedIn provided career guides, workplace essentials, and salary insights for mid-to-high-end professionals. At the same time, it began to provide services such as talent and marketing for Chinese companies going global.

However, two years passed and the strategy did not bring much success. In October 2021 LinkedIn shutdown down all its social-media style services.

When InCareer closes in August, LinkedIn’s nine-year journey to localize in China will officially come to an end. Like Google and Meta, LinkedIn China will only provide services for Chinese enterprises going abroad.