Why Professional Social Networking Isn’t Booming in China?

A decade has already passed since the launch of Tianji.com in 2005, though professional social networking isn’t booming in China. How come?

(Chinese Version)

At the end of June, LinkedIn China launched a separate professional social app specially developed for Chinese market, Chitu (named after a war-steed in the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The word refers to “talent” here). It seemed that LinkedIn really wanted to make a differenc in professional social networking sector.

However, since Linkedin’s entered into Chinese market, the boom of professional social networking didn’t follow as expected. While LinkedIn was going virus in Europe and the US, it failed to repeat the success story in Chinese market.

Of course, success comes in no hurry. As is put by Shen Boyang, CEO of LinkedIn China, “It takes time and patients to achieve success. LinkedIn aims to gather a group of people, localize our brand, increase the number of our users and lay a good foundation during the first year.”

If LinkedIn failed because it didn’t adapt well to Chinese market, then why did Chinese professional social networking platforms such as Tianji, Wealink, Liepin, Ushi, Dajie, Jingwei, etc. also failed?

A decade has already passed since the launch of Tianji.com in 2005, though professional social networking isn’t booming in China. How come?

Distinct social and cultural background

Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, suggested in his book The Start-up of You that professional social networking was based more on weak connections.

For sure, it is more difficult to develop an active and effective social networking platform among people of weak connections.

Weak connections do work in the Western world, but not here in China, where “strong connections” are more effective.

In the professional world, Chinese seems to prefer connecting with friends and relatives at tables, to connecting with strangers online.

A lack of innovation

Chinese professional social networking platforms all developed by copying LinkedIn and adjusting a little bit.

However, facing the competition of LinkedIn China, Chinese professional social networking platforms are forced to work out some real innovations to counterstrike.

Up till now, few Chinese professional social networking platforms stuck to professional social networking anymore. While Dajie focused instead on recruiting, Ushi turned to finance industry. While Jingwei didn’t do anything to maintain and upgrade its platform, Tianji was also acquired by Viadeo, a French professional social networking website.

Although we can’t jump to the conclusion that copying LinkedIn’s model is doomed to failure in China, LinkedIn’s Chitu will definitely bump all the way if no real innovation is work out.

One insider told me that: “Chinese professional social networking platforms have to work out some real innovations and develop products that cater to Chinese users. Only then can they stand out.”

The paradox

For most office workers, social networking isn’t that necessary, let alone with 2nd-degree, 3rd-degree and 4th-degree connections.

For well-connected workers, putting their personal information and professional experience online can be inconvenient and dangerous sometimes.

However, an effective professional social networking must start with these well-connected and high-level few. The more CEOs on professional social networking platforms, the more managers signing up accounts and seeking for connections. The more managers on these platforms, the more office workers, graduates, and interns sign up accounts and connect with these managers. How could a platform fraught with dull life lessons, entertainment news attract professionals to sign up and connect with others?

Without these well-connected and high-level professionals, no useful contents will be generated on these platforms, no effective social networking will be forged, no new users will sign up and no old users will remain active.

If we look at this issue from a larger picture, we may find that Chinese industry structure isn’t mature enough, so we’ll have to wait for some time before professional social networking becomes necessary and even crucial.

The challenge from WeChat and Weibo

In the era of mobile Internet, no Internet company can succeed without having a good number of users on smart phones.

While WeChat has 550 million active user per month, Weibo has over 200 million registered users. They meet most needs of many people and are undoubtedly the biggest two platforms in China. Of course, there is also need for social networking sites of a specific fields, though these platforms and popular SNS such as WeChat and Weibo oftentimes overlap.

WeChat is so popular in China that it has already becomes a must place for employees of many companies to contact and communicate. In this case, WeChat could be a really annoying rival for new professional social networking platforms.

LinkedIn addressed WeChat’s challenge by cooperating with it, so that WeChat users can connect their WeChat account with LinkedIn account and connecting LinkedIn Signature with QQ Mail.

The future?

The future is not all gloom and doom. Although WeChat and Weibo remain a challenging rival for new professional social networking sites, the need for professional social networking is increasing, and real innovations are emerging gradually.

At the same time, with the rapid development of China’s economy, China is in dire need of talents and professionals. In this case, an effective social networking platform shall make a greater difference in the future.

After years of steady development, it’s time for professional social networking to boom at last.

[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @itlaoyou-com, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at ECHO), working for TMTpost.

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