From now on, you have yours and I have my direction.
"Don't update!" With the old users on Weibo a piece of old unforgettable elegy, LinkedIn China officially updated its app version today (December 15).
It's not so much an "update" as a "replacement."
In fact, two months ago, old users already knew that the new version of the LinkedIn will no longer cover the release and interaction of user-generated content.
In other words, LinkedIn (once) as a professional social networking site will completely lose its social function in China, which is equivalent to "castrating" the toughest part of yourself.
In addition to the pain, it is also lamentable. Just like a babbling stream between two vast oceans, LinkedIn China, which has only 50 million users, (once) was the only compliant connection channel between China and Western social media, LinkedIn is probably the social media site for domestic services, the largest number of foreign users, among Chinese users, English is the best.
This is probably why, two months ago, when the fake news of #Microsoft will close LinkedIn China service# was put on Weibo's hot search, "I actually heard about LinkedIn for the first time", "What LinkedIn is doing", "Lao Tzu has not heard of it before he closes" and other Weibo comments are rampant. LinkedIn and Weibo represent the mutual gaze of the two types of user groups, and a certain opposition behind this kind of staring.
It is not only them who are opposed, but LinkedIn's encounter once again confirms that on this beautiful blue planet, two Internets were born, one is the Internet, and the other is the Chinese Internet.
Note that this sentence does not involve any value judgment, it is only a statement of fact: China is a country with "Internet sovereignty", and fortunately or unfortunately, the global Internet territory does not have its own "Westphalian Peace Treaty", and most sovereign countries do not have "Internet sovereignty" and cannot control the flow of information rushing to their own countries.
Image: Painter He Dan
In the eyes of those who support "Internet sovereignty", the information of another ocean is a flood beast that threatens security. Therefore, just like the importance of "customs" to physical commerce and trade (otherwise there is only colonial trade and plunder), overseas Internet companies rushing to their own information flows also need to "have good fences first, and then have good neighbors".
For example, the famous economist Li Ziyang believes that "the current (cross-shore fire- style) international Internet order is unreasonable, unjust and unsustainable, and if the network wants to continue to develop, it needs to establish a new international Internet order." ”
Opponents argue, oh my God, how can you dwarf "information" into "commodities"! Access to information is a right, and people have the ability to discern it (many have doubts about it).
However, this "right to information" will have an irreconcilable contradiction with "Internet sovereignty", similar to the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the free market economy, which is a standard dilemma, involving "freedom vs security", "individual vs group" and other lowest-level value judgments of human nature, and there can be no standard answer.
The answer flutters in the winds of the Pacific Ocean and wanders in everyone's heart.
In my heart, I have feelings for LinkedIn. Now LinkedIn the loss of China's social front, marking the end of the last mainstream social media network openly operated in China overseas, and the babbling stream connecting the two vast oceans has dried up.
From then on, on the sea of the night of never meeting, "You have yours, I have my direction." ”
On the occasion of parting, say goodbye to the "circle of friends" of LinkedIn. May see you again.
Finally, thanks for the old days.