Thread by @kendraschaefer

On LinkedIn's exit from China: Last month, Xiao Yaqing, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology, had a video call with Brad Smith, president of MS US, to discuss "in-depth views on ... Microsoft's development and cooperation in China." 1/13 miit.gov.cn/xwdt/gxdt/ldhd…

Naturally, we don't know what was said during that meeting. Did Xiao insinuate they should get out of social? Totally unrelated? Who knows. What we do know is that LinkedIn is facing increasing regulatory pressure on multiple fronts. 2/13

One, the obvious: Social networks operating in China are increasingly caught in the impossible impasse between Chinese censorship rules and western values. Frankly, it's a miracle LinkedIn survived in China as long as it has. 3/13 axios.com/linkedin-block…

But I'm not convinced that bread-and-butter censorship is the only motivating factor in LinkedIn's exit — LinkedIn has gotten off relatively lightly compared with domestic platforms like Weibo. But a host of other impending developments were set to impact LinkedIn. 4/13

Among them, the CAC's two new policies on algorithms, released over the last two months, would both likely have impacted the company. 5/13

The first draft rules on recommendation algos, released in August, would require any algorithms with "public opinion properties or social mobilization capabilities" to register with regulators (Articles 19 and 20): 6/13 digichina.stanford.edu/work/translati…

It would also require algorithms to prioritize certain types of content - and an expensive and geopolitically unpalatable redesign might have been required. 7/13
linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin…

Second, the CAC's Guiding Opinions on Information Services algorithms, released in Sept, which make it clear that info distribution algorithms should uphold socialist core values. 8/13
cac.gov.cn/2021-09/29/c_1…

Additional factors include the Data Security Law and Personal Information Protection Law (effective November 1), which may have additionally complicated matters. 9/13

A "challenging environment" indeed. So that begs the question - why not exit China entirely? Why pivot to InJobs? 10/13

A couple of years ago, I attended an event held by LinkedIn China's UX team. The data the team was using to extract insights was mostly based on job profiles and connections — data which can theoretically be retained without allowing users to share content. 11/13

Add all this to the fact that LinkedIn hasn't truly taken off in China, and you can imagine why holding the line would seem less than appealing. 12/13

Given all of the above, I could imagine this cost-benefit analysis: much of LinkedIn's valuable data sits in the jobs sections of the platform. Their heavy compliance problems sit in the social media functions of the site. Why not keep the data and drop the social? 13/13

Small update: Pres of LinkedIn China quotes Mark Twain: "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Says LinkedIn will increase, not lower, investment in China, new moves are just strategic redirect. finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2021-10-1…