LinkedIn announced it’s sunsetting the localized version of its app in China and launching a standalone jobs app for the Chinese market.
LinkedIn has announced that it will be shutting down its localized version of its app in China by the end of this year due to an incompatibility between government rules on internet platforms and its mission.
According to the announcement, the Chinese version of LinkedIn, which has been operating within government restrictions since February 2014, has been unable to provide more value to its members besides connecting them to Chinese companies seeking job candidates.
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“While we’ve found success in helping Chinese members find jobs and economic opportunity, we have not found that same level of success in the more social aspects of sharing and staying informed,” explained Mohak Shroff, Senior Vice President of Engineering at LinkedIn. “We’re also facing a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China.”
With social posting and sharing on feeds restricted by national authorities, LinkedIn says it has now shifted its strategy to create economic opportunities for China-based professionals and find suitable candidates for Chinese companies.
To make this a reality, LinkedIn will launch a new standalone app called InJobs later this year. The new app will focus on what the platform has been able to do best within government compliance boundaries for the past seven years in China, connecting employers with candidates.
According to LinkedIn, InJobs will not include a social feed or the ability to share posts or articles, and the app will also continue to “work with Chinese businesses to help them create economic opportunity.”
In other news, LinkedIn also recently announced it’s shutting down its Stories feature.
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