LinkedIn China Looks Forward to 3.0 Era

Qianwang, a division of Tencent News, reported on Wednesday that Lu Jian, Vice President of LinkedIn Global and President of LinkedIn China, described the reasons behind the company’s strategic adjustment and its future in an exclusive interview.

The professional social platform established by LinkedIn in 2003 was more similar to “users’ self-updated online address book”. With the development of social networks, LinkedIn has gradually introduced a variety of social media functions. Users can post and share various opinions on LinkedIn and, based on career profiles and social interactions, the platform has become a recruitment space connecting job seekers and employers on a global scale.

In October 2021, LinkedIn issued a statement saying that it would no longer provide the publishing and interactive functions of original content and will instead launch a series of new products and services later this year.

LinkedIn officially launched its new app for the Chinese market, InCareer, on December 14, 2021. The app is designed to help professionals in the Mainland of China to find jobs while also helping companies discover great talent throughout the country.

SEE ALSO: LinkedIn Introduces InCareer, New App to Help Professionals in China Find Jobs

Lu Jian also explained the reason for the strategic adjustment, “In the past seven years since entering China, we have seen that LinkedIn is much smaller as a media platform than other social media outlets in the country. In terms of recruitment, especially that for middle and high-end positions as well as overseas talent, LinkedIn has many advantages and has a lot of potential in the future.”

The elimination of the platform’s social functions is “based on competitive advantages and its input-output ratio”. Lu insisted that, on the one hand, compared with LinkedIn Global, the domestic media business accounts for a relatively small proportion of LinkedIn China’s business. On the other hand, LinkedIn China needs to pay substantial fees to comply with regulations.

LinkedIn China officially announced that it entered the 2.0 era at its 5th anniversary conference in 2019. Lu Jian said that this strategic adjustment indicates that LinkedIn China has officially entered the 3.0 era.

“In the 3.0 stage, our business strategy will focus on the talent business and offshore businesses,” Lu Jian noted.

InCareer will mainly serve job-seekers while LinkedIn China will continue to enhance its marketing and talent solutions and services to help enterprises move overseas.

China is LinkedIn’s third largest market after the U.S. and India and hosts more than 56 million members. The ability and willingness of Chinese enterprises to go overseas are also increasing. According to the Ministry of Commerce, from 2017 to 2019, the total number of employees employed by Chinese enterprises abroad increased by 10% year by year, and the proportion of foreign employees also increased from 50.4% in 2017 to 60.5% in 2019.