LinkedIn launched InCareer at the end of 2021 as a paired-back job-hunting app, without a social feed so it would be easier to comply with China’s censorship rules. The company shut down its main social network in the country earlier that year, citing “greater compliance requirements”.
LinkedIn launched in China in 2014, making it relatively long-lived in the country for a foreign platform. To operate in the country, it censored content deemed sensitive by Beijing.
Censorship on the platform has sometimes extended beyond written posts. In 2021, LinkedIn blocked Chinese users from viewing the accounts of multiple US journalists who had written stories about sensitive topics. It also censored accounts of academics and human rights activists.
Since the launch of InCareer, the app has languished far behind rival domestic platforms. It had 959,600 monthly active users in March, according to market research firm Analysys. By comparison, 51job had 18.5 million users that month, Boss Zhipin had 17.3 million, while Liepin had 6.7 million.
LinkedIn launched InCareer in December 2021 after ending service for its main social network in the country earlier that year. Photo: iOS App Store
LinkedIn now joins its US peers in having no platform presence in China. The largest platforms including Google, Facebook and Twitter have all been blocked by the Great Firewall, with related services increasingly being blocked in recent years. Gmail was permanently blocked in 2014, while Instagram, owned by Facebook owner Meta Platforms, faced the same fate two years later. Meta’s WhatsApp was also blocked in 2017.
Since China tightened content and data regulations in 2021, some foreign companies have shut down before being blocked. In late 2021, US internet company Yahoo halted its remaining online services in the country, including the Weather app and tech blog Engadget, after its email, news and community services were terminated in 2013 and its research and development operations in Beijing were shut down in 2015.
