China can be a challenging or impossible market for tech firms in the business of providing a free flow of information for its customers. Major players like Facebook and Google faced serious problems trying to fulfill the company’s mission while abiding by strict Chinese censorship controls.
But the leading professional networking site LinkedIn has apparently found a way to straddle the regulatory fence to take advantage of the huge, lucrative Chinese market.
Basically, the LinkedIn model seems to be to play by China’s rules now, then slowly push for more openness later. So far, playing nice with Beijing has paid off – LinkedIn has signed up 4 million Chinese members for its English site, and 1 million new members for its Chinese site – with an aggressive goal of eventually snagging 140 million Chinese professionals.
The company said it believes LinkedIn can provide Chinese professionals with a new level of economic empowerment. “The creation of economic opportunity can have a profound impact on the lives of Chinese individuals, much as it has elsewhere in the world,” said spokesman Hani Durzy.
Among the concessions agreed to by LinkedIn in exchange for avoiding some censorship controls in China: the company is giving up seven percent of its local operation to two Chinese venture capital firms, it will self-censor content that would be deemed sensitive or abrasive, and it’s committed to removing features such as “groups” and the ability to post long status updates and/or essays.
“While we strongly support freedom of expression, we recognized when we launched that we would need to adhere to the requirements of the Chinese government in order to operate in China,” Durzy said. “So the decision to proceed in China was one that we weighed heavily.”
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