LinkedIn has been striving for growth in a few mature markets.

Hence, it doesn’t shock us to learn that
LinkedIn has decided to close the Chitu Chinese language app.

The app was built for the younger generation in China.

Why LinkedIn closed the doors for Chitu?

Maimai and Zhaopin have been
giving LinkedIn a run for the money in China.

Recently, Maimai secured US$750 million in the latest funding round from US top tech investors DCM Ventures and IDG Capital.

It is even aiming at going IPO in 2019.

LinkedIn posted an announcement in Chinese on Chitu’s site.

The Social Media network also observed that
it will upgrade the LinkedIn core app to bring in some of Chitu’s features.

After all, who would want to lose all those users?

LinkedIn said that they will take Chitu off by end of July this year.

“In the future, we will focus on the continuous optimization and upgrade of the LinkedIn app, serving as a one-stop shop to accompany Chinese professionals along each step of their career development and connect to more opportunities.”

Back in 2014, LinkedIn had over 4 million users in China.

LinkedIn’s Derek Shen was the man behind the launch of Chitu.

The aim was to create an app that can target younger smartphone users.

While Chitu had a good start, it started facing issues developing a Linkedin-independent ecosystem.

The problems grew after Microsoft acquired LinkedIn.

With over 47 million LinkedIn users in China, optimizing is the way to go.

Else they run a big risk of losing that user-base.

Have you ever used the Chitu Chinese Language app?

What do you feel about LinkedIn’s decision?