Global Courant 2023-05-09 14:02:31
LinkedIn, the networking platform used by millions of workers and businesses, said Monday it will wind down its operations in China, capping a multi-year downturn that exemplified the challenges of running a foreign company in China.
The Microsoft-owned company said it will lay off 716 employees globally, including engineering and marketing teams in China, due to declining demand. It did not say how many of those layoffs will be in China.
LinkedIn will also shut down its Chinese job posting app, a bare-bones version of its international service, by August. Users of the app, called InCareer, could only search for jobs and not post or share articles like on LinkedIn.
When LinkedIn launched a Chinese-language version of its website in 2014, it charted a path its peers, including Facebook and Google, had eschewed. It teamed up with local companies and began censoring the content of millions of Chinese customers in accordance with Beijing’s strict laws. Several US journalists and activists said their profiles had been blocked due to “prohibited content”. The company said at the time that while it was against government censorship, its absence from the country could deprive Chinese professionals of the opportunity to make professional contacts.
But over the years, the challenges for foreign and domestic social media platforms have grown as the power of the Chinese censorship machine led by leader Xi Jinping exploded. In 2021, LinkedIn closed its main networking service in China, citing compliance issues and a “significantly more challenging work environment”.
In a letter to employees, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said the cuts were driven by slower revenue growth and fluctuations in customer behavior. The news follows an overall slowdown in technology that has led to tens of thousands of layoffs this year at the largest companies, including Amazon, Meta and Google.
LinkedIn, which employs about 20,000 people, said Monday it is reducing its operations in China and other countries but plans to create 250 jobs in other areas.
Mr Roslansky said it will maintain a presence in China to help companies operating in the country hire and train workers from abroad.
