时间：2022-06-22 05:17:05
LinkedIn Corporation has recently launched an independent professional social networking app specially designed for the Chinese market.
The Launch of Chitu
Despite great success of its careeroriented social network that has attracted more than 380 million members worldwide， LinkedIn Corporation has recently launched an independent professional social networking app specially designed for the Chinese market.
Its independent professional networking app called Chitu. Chitu literally means red rabbit in Chinese， was named after a war-steed in the historical novel Romance of The Three Kingdoms. The popular professional networking company seeks to position Chitu as an app“more in tune with Chinese needs.”
LinkedIn China hopes to use Chitu to conquer the Chinese market， which has been always short on such networking services all along.
Chitu is also expected to be a powerful career boost for many young talents in China.
Chitu is an independent new product in the Chinese market run separately from LinkedIn globally， and it’s the very first case in which an international Internet company adopts a double brands strategy to conquer a specific market.
According to LinkedIn Corporation， LinkedIn， the world’s largest social networking site for business professionals， and the namesake app LinkedIn have had more than 10 million registered Chinese users after entering the Chinese market in early 2014.
The Mountain View， Californiabased company is well-known for its aptitude of making the most of its PC and email-based global social networking platform which is innately attractive to users who are good at English language or have overseas educational backgrounds and experience in working in foreign firms. But the global platform could not become as popular in China as in English-speaking countries， because such a high-end group only accounts for a tiny part of its Chinese users.
Shen Boyang， vice president of LinkedIn and president of LinkedIn China said，“Chinese users are divided into different groups and there are certainly needs for us to run an independent product that appeal to Chinese users. Besides the global platform， we also need a ‘Chinese LinkedIn’.”
“Unlike many competing products， the development and direction of Chitu is managed entirely by LinkedIn’s China team. Chitu is now available for users to download and has sent out invitation code to the public. We realize that a multitude of Chinese business professionals pay more attention to their career development in China. Localizing some services of our existing product cannot fully meet the demand of that group. In light of it， we created a new product （Chitu） which is separated from our global system.” Shen said.
A Market-specific Dualbrand Strategy in China
Although they both belong to the same company， Chitu and LinkedIn actually have different features. While Chitu’s designed for young people， LinkedIn is geared towards high-end and international users. Chitu apparently has a more fun， refreshing and interesting atmosphere and LinkedIn is somehow for elite users.
LinkedIn decided to adopt a double brands strategy to run Chitu and LinkedIn.
The move marks the first time that the American Internet company has adopted a dual-brand strategy for a local market by developing a product that is completely independent from its global social networking platform for business community.
Chitu is designed for young professional talents who have just started their careers.
Unlike LinkedIn， which’s international and targets high-end groups， Chitu targets young professional talents in China， putting more emphasis on O2O social networking.
According to a series of surveys conducted by LinkedIn Corporation， Chinese users of professional social networking apps are mainly aged at 20-35， distributed in both big cities and small towns and eager to share business information and build social connections through offline activities.
Therefore， Chitu， which is only in Chinese language， will focus on O2O（online-to-offline） activities with due attention to offering conventional services including information sharing， online group chat and social connection build- ing.
“In the past， Chinese people held a view that social intercourse in the professional world was always serious， rational and vocational. According to our search on the young professional talents in China， however， it occurred to us it could be another way around，” Shen Boyang said. “Therefore we decided to make Chitu an interesting and amiable professional social networking app characterized by （neoteric） product functions and UI designs. We hope to make Chitu interesting， fun， young， and fresh. It’s supposed to make our users feel good when using it. Through reinventing the design， product’s functions， the UI， and LOGO， we can make our users realize that professional social networking could also be fun and genuine.”Shen Boyang， LinkedIn Corporation’s global vice president and president for the China region， said.
In terms of its target audience， LinkedIn is more about international professional talents， overseas students， and people who need to expand their network overseas.
In China， LinkedIn clearly doesn’t really fit in. Young professional talents who have just joined the workforce and are trying to get promotions are the mainstream users of such services. Chitu is a product for them. It focuses more on these young professional talents and allows them to expand their network， collect useful contacts， meet funny strangers， and have online， or even offline activities with each other.
In order to increase Chitu’s presence in China， at the beginning， the operation team will directionally send ads to some LinkedIn users it elaborately selects in a bid to attract them to the new app， Shen said， adding that inchoate access threshold for headhunters will be strictly limited in hope of not making the new platform too professional.
Other Mainstream Professional Social Networking Apps
Maimai is a professional networking app based on contacts. Its most outstanding feature is that it can offer you with quite a lot available data right after the users finish registering their accounts， which is quite astonishing. Every hidden contact and possible professional relationship will be processed and presented to the users.
The growing contact base enables users to further expand their social network. A user might have 200 existing contacts and through Maimai’s service， the user will get to know the friends of his or her friends， allowing the users to quickly expand the network. This is where Maimai shines the most.
Maimai targets middle and highend users， covering industries from the Internet industry， IT industry， finance industry， to consultant industry etc. Last year， Maimai had already started to undergo commercialization， developing services such as recruiting， consulting， and supplementary financing.
Networking for pure business purpose is a distinct advantage of Maimai compared to other products on the market. Maimai creates a platform where professional talents can have effective communication on the things they have encountered in their workplace. Additionally， users can also use Maimai to meet friends alike and talk about the industry they are in， the development of their career， and even the bad things happened on work.
On Maimai， users can post updates with real ID or anonymously. Gossiping anonymously is probably the most active sector of Maimai on which users lash out and gossip about their problems in the office and some anecdotes within the industry. It’s no doubt a place for professional talents to relieve their tension and pressure and share interesting things with other users at the same time， making work less boring.
‘Professional’ social networking can’t really be achieved online. Offline meetings are always necessary， especially for professionals who always talk about efficiency and outcomes. Whether it’s finding a project， discussing about products， or getting business cooperation， it can all be achieve through Huihui.
Huihui’s biggest advantage that sets itself apart from the crowd is its mecha- nism that triggers offline in-person meetings， which combines professional networking with everyday scenarios and explores potential contacts for the users. New users are required to provide the information of their companies and current position to verify their identities. In addition， Huihui will make contact recommendation based on the geolocation， users’ current industry， phone contacts etc. to help users find more relevant contacts and create meeting possibilities.
Users can also post a meeting card which includes basic information about the meeting such as the topic， meeting form， fee， the time， and how many people will attend. The meeting card can be posted publicly or privately among friends.
When users agree on a meeting， they will automatically become friends on Huihui and the chatting function will become available for them to communicate better since a meeting requires basic individual information about each other and the details need to be worked out as well.
Renmaitong is a new form of business social networking product that allows users to have communication with their real names. Through making each social circle more specific and making it better， Renmaitong is able to offer great assistance to users to develop their career on the level of social networking.
Renmaitong’s users can manage their contacts， expand their network， scan business cards， exchange digital name cards， manage schedule， customize news feed， and share industry expertise etc.
The Professional Social Networking Market Demand Grows
For many reasons， China has always been short on professional social networking products. Though PC clients such as Tianji and Ruolin were getting a great number of users at the beginning， they gradually quiet down after a short period of blossoming. Their long-term active users are mainly head hunters and HRs， which is a sad reality that shows these two products are indeed struggling.
Nevertheless， Chinese companies never give up while facing difficulties， instead they rise. To change the current situation， Chinese professional social networking products are now becoming more local， fitted for Chinese users. And it’s for the same reason that LinkedIn China developed Chitu.
In recent years， China’s mobile Internet has been booming and the industry has been reflecting on why professional social networking failed to take off in the country.
WeChat and QQ both possess an incredibly large number of users and have been regarded as great competitors in the field of professional social networking for that.
Yet， Maimai’s founder Lin Fan believed that vertical professional networking products had more chances when compared to WeChat for they were more specific and could appeal to specific users.
As the market demand grows， the market is no doubt becoming better. The failures and difficulties the industry has encountered and the lessons the industry has learned in all those years will definitely be of great value to drive the industry forward.
When asked to comment on how Chitu will break the dominance of WeChat in the Chinese social media market， Shen said that there exists no competition between the two social networking services， even though the popular messaging app developed by China’s Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. now has 549 million monthly active users， citing the difference in target users of the two apps.
WeChat is a general social communication app with a user’s connections on the app basically being his or her family members， friends or at least people he or she knows， Shen said， in comparison with Chitu， which pay attention on connecting and developing business and career opportunities across China.
“Chitu encourages strangers with real occupational identities to know each other online. That is the biggest difference between the two apps.” he said.
In addition， two users usually know each other on Chitu through the app’s search function， and then have a meeting privately， which is diametric with WeChat， Shen added.
“WeChat puts more emphasis on life. A growing number of WeChat contacts will make users feel crag-fast when posting a photo to the moments. Is it OK for friends to see it？ Is it OK for classmates to see it？ Is it OK for colleagues to see it？ Is It OK for boss to see it？ There are too many considerations， and finally they might give up posting it.” Shen said.
76% of users of social networking apps would like to segregate the life circle from the work circle， according to a poll conducted by LinkedIn Corporation， which deepens the company’s faith in exploring China’s professional social communication market which has seen an explosive growth in the recent two years.
“The relationship between Chitu and WeChat is actually complementary.”Shen said.
Last year， LinkedIn Corporation and Tencent Holdings Ltd. built a partnership to allow users to link their LinkedIn account to WeChat account， a move that can raise the profile of LinkedIn among WeChat’s users， particularly in China. The integration enables users to see which of their LinkedIn connections are already on WeChat， as well as invite others to join.
More importantly， users’ LinkedIn connections can be directly transmitted into their Chitu accounts to form a new career landscape， Shen said.
Plenty of Potential for Further Growth in China
LinkedIn’s member base in China has more than doubled since last year， when the company reported it had 4 million members in the country. Management said in its second-quarter earnings call that it recently reached the 10 million member milestone in the market.
While that is only a fraction of LinkedIn’s 380 million total members today， there’s plenty of potential for further growth. According to LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner， the company can eventually attract about 140 million new professionals in China.
For most Chinese users， professional networking sites are only a tool for finding work or sourcing talent. But on these two points， most fall short of meeting their expectations. Swarms of advertisements and junky leads quickly overwhelm users’ accounts.
Sites like LinkedIn appear to be playing two different games， positioning themselves as both business and communication platforms. However， no number of social networking features can hide the fact that most users visit LinkedIn to find jobs.
Reid Garret Hoffman， the founder of LinkedIn， said in his book The Startup of You that professional networking depends on weak relations.
But weak relations are not how Chinese business works.
Most professional networking sites follow the LinkedIn model， which uses an inherently Eurocentric approach to understanding users. Western users seem to be more willing to share their experiences and moods without any utilitarian purpose. However， in China， social networking is decidedly utilitarianism.
The recommendations of friends and opinions of one’s parents exert a heavy influence on one’s career development. What’s more， Chinese social communication heavily emphasizes drinking and eating in person.
In China， it’s face-to-face communication between acquaintances that lays the groundwork for business.
“Americans may seek out people who would be helpful on LinkedIn and talk about business directly. In China， it’s friends first， business second，” said Lin Feng， the founder of Tianji. “No matter how perfectly I imitated LinkedIn on Tianji， recruiters were the only people who were ever looking at profiles.”
In addition， Americans and Europeans tend to have a stronger worklife distinction. In China， these spheres blend until it’s hard to say whether a meal was a friendly meet-up or a business lunch. It’s not easy to convince users to split their lives across different platforms.
It’s unsurprising that many companies treat Weibo and WeChat， with their more than 550 million active users， as the primary tools for communication and discovery.
Whether in China or other countries， the most active users of professional networking sites are freelancers， start-ups， small businesses and recruiters. While there are many CEO accounts， few come from notable firms or provide anything in the way of valuable contacts.
Most traditional industries in China don’t develop new apps， and senior managers rarely have any technological competence. Many view the Internet with suspicion and regard it as an unnecessary trouble or danger.
Ordinary workers have a limited need for networking relationships. In China， second degree or even third and fourth degree contacts offer very little aid in career development.
But senior managers and executives are the backbone of professional networking sites. Without them， directors， managers and workers and graduates have little motive to sign up. The shortage of good users leaves many sites unable to generate useful content.
Chitu faces a difficult decision. If it appeals to the social networking habits of China’s young adults， it will never attract the high-end users it requires to avoid abandonment. Whether its team can learn from 10 years of failure to find a formula that works for China remains to be seen.