LinkedIn sees progress in China

LinkedIn, established in 2003 as a social media platform for worldwide professionals, has more than 300 million users in more than 200 countries, with a registered account for nearly every Fortune Global 500 business leader. Having witnessed success, LinkedIn launched a Chinese edition of its site in February 2014. Now, ten months later, LinkedIn China has gained broad recognition in the Chinese market with more than 5 million users and 200 domestic companies paying for its recruitment services. Among them are Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba.

Before entering China, the English edition of LinkedIn already had about 4 million Chinese users. Market research showed that Chinese users, especially employees and college graduates, have similar workforce-related needs as those in the West, including having job opportunities that match their capabilities, gaining greater career success, and sharing positive workplace experiences with others. Additionally, the fact that China is home to more than 500 million smartphone users further indicated the high potential of an online social media platform like LinkedIn.

However, breaking into the Chinese market still wasn't easy. After Google, Ebay, and Yahoo withdrew from China after their unsuccessful attempts to do well in its market, LinkedIn developed several strategies to prevent themselves from having the same fate.

LinkedIn China first appointed a local CEO, Derek Shen, the founder and former CEO of nuomi.com, a leading group-buying site in China, and the former vice-president of social networking site renren.com.

To adapt to the Chinese market, LinkedIn China was established as a joint venture, partnering with two companies with experience in localization, Sequoia Capital China and China Broadband Capital. LinkedIn China also added local features to its site through cooperation with Sina and Tencent so that users of these two platforms could easily link to LinkedIn and share industry news and insight.

Shen often refers to LinkedIn's headquarters in the US as a "mothership," while LinkedIn China is a smaller spaceship hovering nearby. Shen said that in order to succeed, LinkedIn China should not simply be a branch of LinkedIn, but instead, a completely new joint venture with its own departments, including sales, technical innovation, marketing and public relations.

"This is the kind of business operation that LinkedIn China has adopted to not follow the previous failure of other international Internet companies in China," Shen said.

Company culture is also important to Shen. At LinkedIn China, there is a rule about staff recruitment in which every job applicant, whether it is for the head of a department or a receptionist, will meet with Shen for a one-on-one interview. Shen developed this initiative so that LinkedIn China could operate in a way similar to a startup. He said the staff of startups in China all embody the spirit of their management, and he hopes that through his interviews, LinkedIn China's staff can do the same.

Not everything about the company's market strategy is exclusive to China. LinkedIn China has adopted the US company's strategy of partnering with universities. Every year, top universities in the US invite LinkedIn to hold career training and instruction for students. In November, LinkedIn China offered the same opportunity to students at Peking University, providing them with professional advice about expanding their social connections to find their ideal job.