- The only leading social media who gets permit into China
Hoping to greatly increase its presence in one of the world’s great labor markets, LinkedIn has announced the formation of a site dedicated to China.
The site, which is in the kind of simplified Chinese that is accessible to the greatest number of readers, may also practice some forms of self-censorship in order to work inside China, said LinkedIn’s chief executive, Jeff Weiner.
“There are 140 million professionals in China — one out of five professionals on a global basis,” Mr. Weiner said. “With an ‘English only’ site we had four million users,” the great majority of whom were expatriates in China.
It is the 22nd local language site for LinkedIn, a kind of social network for work and careers. Individuals post their résumés on LinkedIn, and recruiters use the site to find talent.
Increasingly, LinkedIn has also become something of a publisher, drawing big names like Richard Branson to write personal pieces, and developing both commentary on business developments and topics on specialty themes like accounting.
The objective of the Chinese site, Mr. Weiner said, is to build a talent marketplace that would be attractive both to multinational companies looking to expand their presence in China, and to Chinese companies looking for a stronger foreign presence.
As the site grows, however, it is likely to require a license from the Chinese government, which may limit what LinkedIn publishes there. “While we support free speech, we recognize that to obtain a license in China it may be necessary to limit some things,” he said.
Away from the government, he said, recent visits to China indicated that its people, at least among professionals, yearn for many of the same things as other LinkedIn users.
“You have the same hopes,” he said. “Students are worried about where they will get their first job. Entrepreneurs are worried about where to get funding to build a business. Everyone is worried about where they’ll get the resources to take care of their parents.”
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