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Who Will Be China’s Linkedin? Tianji (Not Linkedin) Looks To Be First In Line.

By Dan Harris on Posted in China Business

Though I love LinkedIn and view it as an invaluable resource for online discussion, the recent spate of articles talking about the company’s potential plans for China have me scratching my head. Foreign companies in the Internet space have a notoriously poor record in China, with local competitors almost always edging them out. Social networking sites tend to fare even worse.

Google’s well-documented problems in China boosted Baidu’s already strong market position. Sina Weibo has been a phenomenal success with Twitter blocked from the market. Other big time US Internet players have also been beaten in China, like Facebook (Renren, Kaixin001) and YouTube (Youku, Tudou). Meanwhile, Groupon is having all sorts of headaches as it throws money at the Chinese market to beat out the likes of Lashou, Meituan and Taobao’s group buying site. And that’s without even mentioning Yahoo’s long-standing and more more recent China problems. 

There are all sorts of business and legal impediments for foreign companies seeking to suceed in the China internet space and many of those will no doubt come into play for Linkedin as well.

So why all the talk about LinkedIn in China as though it will be any different? One advantage it has is that it is alive and well right now in China. But as it discovered earlier this year, even that is not a certainty.  

But if I had to bet, I would be putting my money on a Chinese domestic player ending up with control over China’s professional networking realm.  

Currently, Tianji is the largest player in China, with six million registered users, admittedly small by Chinese Internet standards, but significantly larger than its competition. Headed by Derek Ling, a former vice president at Sina.com, who also has had stints at Motorola and Apple, the site has a number of advantages that could help separate it from a crowded field of professional SNS sites in China—probably the most important of which is that it is already large. Generally SNS pick up steam based on people’s friends all signing up for the same site. 

Also, Tianji has been in the market a while—since 2005—and claims that the industry is ramping up due to different factors: 

…it’s only recently that Chinese people have started to view the Web as a business networking tool, according to the company’s CEO, Derek Ling. “It’s taken professionals a while to get used to the idea of using this service. But now we are actually seeing a turning point in China,” he said. 

That turning point is the result of other Chinese Facebook-like sites gaining popularity in the country, giving users exposure to how social networking services can work. These sites, however, mainly became popular from the games and entertainment offered, Ling said.

“But then after gaming what happens?” he asked. “I think people are finally looking for real value in social networks. This is where professional networks can really pick up in China.”

I think he is correct, as in the last six months or so, I have spotted a noticable (and welcome) uptick in Chinese professionals joining our China Law Blog Group on Linkedin.  But predicting Tianji will dominate this sector is anything but a slam dunk; as others have noted, when you try to find the next Facebook, you could end up with the next Friendster.

Nonetheless, I have to believe that LinkedIn will not be the LinkedIn of China. Meanwhile, supposed rivals like Ushi, have only managed to capture one-twentieth the market share of Tianji. So for now anyway, it looks like the mantle of the “LinkedIn of China” is Tianji’s to lose. 

It all should be really interesting. What do you think? 

  • Twofish

    There’s one important factor which is politics. One reason US-based companies have trouble setting up in China is that they have enormous difficulty with Chinese control over the internet.
    These factors are likely to be less important for linkedin, because there isn’t an obvious way linkedin is going to run into political difficulties. Unlike facebook and twitter, no one has suggested linkedin as a platform for political activism, and because people have public identities, the self-censorship imposed by their employers and co-workers is likely to remove much of what the Chinese government would find objectionable.
    On linkedin, people usually maintain a very carefully managed public image, and if I were for example a strong supporter or opponent of Sarah Palin or Barack Obama, I wouldn’t put that on linkedin since I don’t want that to be a factor in turning off potential employers with different views.
    The other thing is that on facebook and google, people can post with pseudonyms. On linkedin, people use their real identities with all of the self-censorship that goes with that.
    Also if facebook or google starts blocking political posts, then people will scream (and justifiable scream) censorship. On the other hand, one reason people find linkedin useful is that they do try to keep it from becoming a free for all political chat room.

  • http://evaslaw.com Eva Gao

    How about P1.cn? – Connecting with Exceptional.

  • kyoiku

    Isn’t it kind of misleading to say Facebook and Youtube have been “beaten” in China? It’s also strange to say “Foreign companies in the Internet space have a notoriously poor record in China”– as if they have somehow mismanaged their approach to China, as opposed to (in many cases) being outright blocked from competing in the market.
    Let’s not forget just how many major players are outright blocked from the Chinese market:
    Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot, Foursquare, Picasaweb…
    But yes you’re right– Chinese people love Renren and laugh at the idea of using Facebook. Facebook’s strategy of getting blocked in China was clearly a poor one. Next time they should use Kaixinzerozeroone’s strategy of not getting blocked :D

  • http://www.laduidefenselawyers.com Joe

    Well, with the restrictions that many American internet companies face in places like China, it would be easier for home-grown internet companies to play the home field advantage. They understand the government and the culture and they understand how to work with it.

  • http://bannka.com Dennis Chu

    Tianji? I never really use it, neither do any of my friends do. We use Linkedin.

  • A. Countant

    Tianji is controlled by French firm Viadeo.There’s a foreign factor there that distinguishes it from a “pure-bred” local player. It’ll be interesting to see whether and how this plays out…

  • justaguy

    I’m not expecting linkedin to pull off a major success in China relative to local players, but this is a case where global presence creates an advantage in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily see with a goodle or a facebook. To the extent that Linkedin can leverage their global membership to create opportunities for people inside and outside of China to find employers/employees for outsourcing and the like they have an advantage that a purely local networking site doesn’t.

  • Ollumi

    I fully expect Linkedin to have the same amount of success in China as Ebay as soon as the appropriate people are alerted there’s money to be made in that sector. Of course, the government’s longstanding attitude toward unmitigated foreign daliances will play a part too.
    Yes my tongue is well buried in my cheek right now.

  • Cleo

    What’s the point of using Linkedin and its imitators or having a page on Linkedin if there is no verification system in place. Sure, I could say I was at Uni of Manchester and got a degree in absolutely nothing worth knowing but where is the PROOF? Why would an employer waste time looking at it. I think it is just a glorified off shoot of a social networking page like the “About Me” link. It might gain something when employers actually deign to post job listings but that will require constant policing otherwise we’ll end up with Craigslist – great for picking up free bookcases, lousy for not meeting serial killers.

  • ST

    There will be no Linkedin in China, Chinese or otherwise. That would require too much of an opening up that is not right now in the cards.

  • http://www.linkedin-china.com Tony

    As long as LinkedIn is not blocked in China, there is little chance for LinkedIn’s clone succeed in China.
    Professionals climb up and Multinational companies are still well regarded in China. Tianji’s number is not trustworthy as it’s more prominent competitor – Ushi.cn only has less than 400,000 membership so far. No friends around me use Tianji.