LinkedIn Cuts 716 Jobs, Kills App In Deepening China Pullout

(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn plans to shut its jobs app in China and cut about 716 jobs, as the US professional networking service further shrinks its presence in the world’s No. 2 economy.

LinkedIn, citing intense competition, will phase out the InCareer local jobs app by August. It intends to cut local engineering and product teams, while downsizing functions such as sales and marketing, it said in a blogpost.

The move extends a withdrawal from the world’s largest internet market that began about two years ago, after LinkedIn ran into regulatory scrutiny and local rivals flourished. The US company will keep an office and staff there, in part to support a business helping domestically based companies recruit and train talent abroad.

“We’ll focus our China strategy on assisting companies operating in China to hire, market, and train abroad,” the company said in an internal memo. “Though InCareer experienced some success in the past year thanks to our strong China-based team, it also encountered fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate.” 

After entering China in 2014, LinkedIn seemed initially to offer a model for American internet companies in the country. In exchange for permission to operate, the company agreed to restrict content to adhere to state censorship rules. The service had about 52 million users on mainland China at one point, while other American platforms such as Twitter and Facebook were banned.

In 2021, the company announced it was shuttering the local version of LinkedIn, blaming a challenging operating environment — becoming the last major US social media service to cease operations.

Read more: Microsoft Shuts LinkedIn China, Citing ‘Challenging’ Climate

(Updates with company’s comment on China presence from the third paragraph)

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