LinkedIn launches Chinese language site

Professional social networking website LinkedIn has launched a Chinese language version of its website.

LinkedIn chief executive Jeff Weiner said the company would have to censor some of the content that users post on its website in order to comply with Chinese rules.

But Mr Weiner said the benefits of providing its online service to people in China outweighed those concerns. He vowed that the company would be “transparent” about its practices as it builds its presence in a country it said is home to one in five of the “knowledge workers” that are LinkedIn’s core audience.

“Extending our service in China raises difficult questions, but it is clear to us that the decision to proceed is the right one,” Mr Weiner said.

Foreign Internet companies face difficulties operating in China. Beijing censors sensitive terms from the Internet and blocks social networks Facebook and Twitter, a widespread effort that analysts say is geared towards maintaining the Communist Party's hold on power and preserving social stability.

LinkedIn’s arguments about trade-offs for the greater good are reminiscent of Google’s justification for its controversial 2006 decision to launch a self-censored version of its search service in China.

Four years later, Google reversed course and relocated its search engine to Hong Kong from mainland China, following a dispute with the Chinese government over what Google said was increasingly onerous censorship and cyber-attacks it said originated in China.

The Chinese language website that will be available is a “beta,” or test, version of the site. LinkedIn is still in the process of getting a license to operate the Chinese language site, which will require that the company maintain server computers in China that will store data about its Chinese users, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Mr Weiner said the Chinese language site would help LinkedIn reach 140 million professionals in China, providing the potential for the company to significantly expand its current audience of 277 million members.

Reuters