LinkedIn’s decision to phase out its application in China by August 9 could make its India operations more important now than before. India is the Microsoft-backed company’s fastest-growing market. The company has also been allocating more resources to India, which now has over 100 million users.
In contrast, China has been a rough market for the company over the last few years. A LinkedIn spokesperson cited “fierce competition” and “a challenging macroeconomic climate” as the reason for the shutdown.
LinkedIn will retain some presence in China, mainly to provide services for companies operating there to hire and train employees outside the country. It first entered China in 2014 by launching a localised version of its main app.
In March 2021, LinkedIn had to suspend signups in China to comply with local laws. A few months later, it replaced that app with InCareer, which was focussed solely on job postings, with no social networking features such as sharing or commenting.
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By 2021, it had more than 50 million members in the country, making it the company’s third-biggest market after the US and India. But it lagged behind local competitors such as Maimai. According to analysts tracking the company, Linkedin has had a larger success in India because of the growing working population. Since its introduction in India in 2009, LinkedIn now has 105 million members, which is about 11 per cent of its member base globally.
LinkedIn’s revenue in India is up 84 per cent from FY20 and has grown nearly 4x over the past 5 years (from FY17 to FY22).
As of 2023, 40.5 per cent of all Indian members on LinkedIn are Gen Z professionals. This has grown by 7.5 per cent YoY.
“I am increasingly thinking about India and its needs. When we talk about skills, there is the issue of the languages and the certificates and credentials you need are different. So we’re spending a lot more time to understand that market. How do we make sure, for example, we offer standardised certificates? In terms of trends, we are seeing a lot of engagement with the student population. Student signups on LinkedIn are up 73 per cent YoY now,” Hari Srinivasan, VP of Product, Talent Solutions at LinkedIn had recently told businessline.