LinkedIn to lay off hundreds of workers and end Chinese app project.

LinkedIn to Lay Off 700 Employees and Shut Down Chinese Version of Platform

In response to shifts in customer behavior and slower revenue growth, LinkedIn plans to lay off over 700 employees and shut down its Chinese version of the platform. The headcount reduction will impact less than 4% of the company’s nearly 20,000 employees. CEO Ryan Roslansky stated that the macro environment is expected to remain challenging, but the company will continue to operate with ambition and pragmatism. LinkedIn will phase out InCareer, a version of the career platform meant for users in China, by the end of the summer. Despite maintaining 57 million members in China, the platform faced fierce competition and a challenging macroeconomic climate.

The layoffs at LinkedIn follow similar actions from other leading technology companies, including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta. Inflated payrolls and lower demand are preeminent factors behind lackluster profits, leading to more than 139,000 workers being dismissed from prominent technology firms in the first months of 2023.

Roslansky noted the advent of generative artificial intelligence solutions in his message and said that LinkedIn believes the social media platform is “more essential than ever to help our members and customers navigate the changes to access economic opportunity.” Technology firms have seen AI solutions as a potential driving force for growth, prompting a race to implement generative AI innovations into products.

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