Tencent News "Periscope"
Mr. Yuan, a financial practitioner, is a heavy user of the professional platform LinkedIn, and he used to go to the partners of the upstream and downstream industry chain through LinkedIn, as well as daily understanding of industry dynamics, contact position changes and other information.
But today, the LinkedIn's page function seems to have "surprised Mr. Yuan" - functions such as interaction and search no longer exist. "A good social platform has become a pure recruitment software", Mr. Yuan's personal page is only a display of information about his career.
These changes stem from LinkedIn's recent strategic realignment in China. In October 2021, the LinkedIn issued a statement saying that it will make strategic adjustments, no longer provide original content publishing and interactive functions, and will launch a series of new products and services within the year.
With the launch of a new app, LinkedIn Workplace, on December 14, 2021, the company says the product will focus on helping users connect career opportunities and help employers find their ideal candidates.
In the face of such changes, C-end users like Mr. Yuan, and even enterprise-level users on the platform, have shown different degrees of concern. This change has caused other domestic recruitment platforms to be eager to try. At this time, LinkedIn, what will be the next step, and will there be opportunities to build competitive barriers in the future?
Recently, Lu Jian, global vice president of LinkedIn and president of LinkedIn China, told for the first time in an exclusive interview with Tencent News "Periscope" that LinkedIn the reasons behind China's strategic adjustment and the new trends in future strategies were described for the first time.
Removing the "social media" function LinkedIn China into the 3.0 phase
When it comes to LinkedIn, the first thing that comes to people's minds is often the keyword "workplace social platform". LinkedIn the professional social network established when it was founded in 2003, it is more similar to the "user self-updating online address book" function. With the development of social networks, LinkedIn gradually introduced social media features, users can post and share various opinions and opinions on LinkedIn platforms. Based on real career profiles and social interactions, LinkedIn become a recruitment platform that connects job seekers and employers on a global scale.
As for the reasons for the strategic adjustment in China, Lu Jian explained, "In the past 18 years, LinkedIn has gradually evolved into an important social media platform and recruitment platform around the world, but in the past 7 years of entering China, we have seen that compared with other social media platforms in China, the scale of LinkedIn as a media is much smaller. In terms of recruitment, especially in the recruitment of mid-to-high-end positions and overseas talents, LinkedIn is very advantageous and promising in the future. ”
The removal of the "social media" function is "based on competitive advantage and input-output ratio". Lu insisted that on the one hand, compared with LinkedIn global, domestic-oriented media business accounts for a relatively small proportion of LinkedIn China's business; on the other hand, at the level of compliance operation, it needs to pay a lot of costs.
LinkedIn China put forward the brand value of "connecting unlimited opportunities" at the 5th anniversary conference in 2019, officially announcing that LinkedIn enter the 2.0 era. Lu Jian said that this strategic adjustment indicates that LinkedIn China has officially entered the 3.0 era.
"In phase 3.0, we will continue to continue the vision of 'connecting unlimited opportunities', and our business strategy will focus on the two aspects of the talent market business and the overseas business." According to Lu Jian, in terms of the talent market, the "LinkedIn Workplace" product launched at the end of last year will mainly provide the value of "one-stop career development" for C-end users, and there are also perfect enterprise-level products and services for employers and recruitment industry LinkedIn. In terms of overseas business, LinkedIn will continue to enhance its marketing and talent solutions and services that help enterprises go overseas, and plans to launch more comprehensive overseas solutions and services in the future. It is understood that the removal of the strategic adjustment is only the domestic social media business, and the overseas media business has grown rapidly in the overall business performance of LinkedIn China, which is promising.
"It can be said that in the Chinese market, we are steadily building a commercial system with internal and external dual circulation. Internally, we will gradually improve the construction of the talent ecosystem to help talents and employers better connect; externally, we will comprehensively build services and guarantees that help Chinese enterprises go to sea, and build a bridge connecting global economic opportunities. "For LinkedIn, this future strategy may be based on the advantages of the global platform, which is the most suitable development model for the Chinese market."
From "career development" to "passive job search", the core is to help users connect to better career opportunities
From the perspective of the type of recruitment platform, the traditional recruitment website, job seekers and recruiters use the recruitment platform is often a one-time behavior. Whether a job seeker is applying for a job or a recruiter publishing job information, it is only to apply for or publish the relevant position when the demand arises, and once the demand is met, it will not be updated and maintained in a timely manner. LinkedIn've never been such a business.
Usually, there are two ways to get a new job in the workplace: active and passive. Traditional job search sites primarily serve active job seekers. Career profile information such as real-name certification, detailed educational background, and work history makes LinkedIn a natural way to help employers discover and connect with more passive job seekers.
"LinkedIn is a two-way connection platform, sometimes active job seekers are looking for jobs, but our platform has more advantages in passive job search, which has a strong correlation with many high-end talents in the LinkedIn." Lu insisted.
Born in Silicon Valley in 2003, it successfully entered the Chinese market in 2014 and carried out a localization development path, making LinkedIn China a gathering place for high-end talents in various industries. LinkedIn the English version before entering China, it already had 4 million Chinese users. The LinkedIn where high-end talents gather has also become one of the main ways for multinational companies, large enterprises and headhunters to find "high-end" talents.
"Our big clients tell us that none of the people they're looking for are people who are actively looking for jobs. They use LinkedIn solutions, more to seek passive job seekers, and high-end passive job seekers are often only found in LinkedIn" Lu Jian introduced.
However, compared with the extremely scarce high-end talent market, the broader C-end users are those who have just entered the workplace or are even about to enter the workplace. How to serve different types of workplace people, Lu insisted that in the future, the C-end product of "LinkedIn workplace" will continue the positioning of "one-stop career development platform" proposed in the 2.0 era.
"We're more than just a platform for finding a job. A person's career development has different needs at different stages, and we want to provide different values in this process. For example, for newcomers to the workplace, we once had a product function called 'Career Guide', and we will continue this product function in the future; for senior professionals, we have 'workplace mentors' and 'skill improvement' and other functions to help them better achieve advancement. ”
Lu Jian said that from the experience of the past two years, we can see that all the value provided in terms of career development is ultimately to help everyone connect to better career opportunities. Therefore, in the future LinkedIn the goal for C-end users is still to create a one-stop career development platform with "connecting unlimited opportunities" as the core, by providing the value of career needs at different stages, helping workplace people achieve self-improvement and development, and ultimately connecting better opportunities.
It is reported that based on the complexity of the product's own logic, the "LinkedIn Workplace" version launched on December 14 currently only covers the basic recruitment functions, and with the continuous update and iteration of the product, more perfect social interaction and other career development-related functions will be introduced successively.
Improve the talent ecosystem and build a broad moat
According to Lu Jian, based on the huge talent database generated by LinkedIn users, it supports the development and growth of LinkedIn's To B business in the talent market. It is this "C-end + B-end" self-circulating talent ecosystem that has built a unique business model LinkedIn in the talent market and a self-reliant and wide moat.
This mutually reinforcing ecosystem contains solutions to the pain points that have existed in the recruitment industry for many years. "The talent market seems to be fiercely competitive, but each has a different focus", Lu Jian explained, from the traditional era, to the PC era, and then to the mobile Internet era, although this business has fully achieved efficiency improvement in the process of development, the really important indicator "effect" is not necessarily.
"The talent market is not a traffic business," Lu Jian said, job seekers want to get the job, recruiters are not necessarily willing; similarly, recruiters want to poach someone, this person is not necessarily willing. Therefore, the job market is a two-way matching process between "buyer demand" and "seller demand", and only when the two-way demand is recognized and satisfied, can the transaction be concluded.
LinkedIn unique business model, which can make the C-end B-side better match each other, improve the recruitment effect, and make the "efficiency" and "effect" more likely to achieve the best at the same time. According to Lu Jian, in the future, LinkedIn will further promote the two-way matching of the C-end and the B-end through a series of product functions.
For example: social-based recruitment model, in the bilateral talent market between employers and job seekers, LinkedIn China will introduce a third role through social relations - "recommender"; skill-oriented recruitment mode, as indicators such as education, degree and work experience are difficult to become indicators of talent assessment in more and more emerging fields, in the face of the gradual rise of the "de-qualification" recruitment market, skill upgrading, skill assessment and skill-oriented recruitment solutions will also become the direction of LinkedIn China. In Lu Jian's view, these two directions will also be new opportunities in the recruitment field in the future.
"I saw a McKinsey report last year showing that by 2030, 220 million Chinese workers will need to change their jobs and skills. Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics also released data that by the end of 2021, China's flexible employment has reached 200 million people. The job market is changing dramatically, and we need to explore more effective ways to match talent with demand, and skills are an important part of the process. Lu Jian said.
Focus on overseas business and amplify the core advantages of "connecting with the world"
In addition to creating an ecosystem of talent markets, another business opportunity for LinkedIn to focus on China is to help Chinese companies go global. "Our most unique advantage is still connecting talents and opportunities in China and overseas, and we will focus on this aspect to amplify this part of the advantage." Lu Jian said.
Under the development trend of mutual promotion of domestic and international dual cycles, the ability and willingness of Chinese enterprises to go to sea have been continuously enhanced. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, from 2017 to 2019, the total number of employees hired abroad by Chinese enterprises increased by 10% year by year, and the proportion of foreign employees hired increased from 50.4% in 2017 to 60.5% in 2019.
Lu Jian said that in previous surveys, Chinese companies have always faced the dual challenges of building an international talent organization and establishing brand recognition when laying out overseas, and talent and brand are the two core businesses of LinkedIn China in the commercial end.
On the talent side, as a platform connecting 800 million workplaces around the world, LinkedIn can provide a package of talent solutions from strategic planning, recruitment attraction to organizational development, helping enterprises to build an international talent team in a forward-looking manner. "LinkedIn digital tools can help companies connect with scarce talent that is more specialized or relatively unpopular. If companies want to introduce outstanding overseas talents, such as AI talents, 'double carbon' talents and other emerging hot fields, they can go to the LinkedIn. Lu Jian said.
On the brand side, because high-end talents often have management decision-making power in the operation of enterprises, LinkedIn platforms focusing on "high-tech" talents can help customers accurately target the target audience and optimize the advertising effect. LinkedIn is now one of the world's top three B2B digital advertising platforms, and LinkedIn marketing solutions have grown more than fivefold in the past five years. With the acceleration and deepening of digital transformation in China, digital marketing has become a must for Chinese B2B marketers. Lu insisted that the advantages of products and services that can refine and accurately connect with overseas enterprise decision-makers on the LinkedIn platform will further enlarge, which will also bring huge business growth space to LinkedIn China.
Last year LinkedIn jointly launched the "International Soft Power Enhancement Acceleration Program for Chinese Enterprises" with China Trade News and CGTN Think Tank, and successively provided support for Chinese enterprises in terms of talents, brands, and legal compliance. Lu Jian said, "In the future, we hope to continue to cooperate more deeply with authoritative partners such as ccpit, to provide a set of integrated solutions for Chinese enterprises to go to sea, and to solve all difficulties and blockages in the process as a package." ”
Unique business models and compliant localization strategies have allowed LinkedIn to grow rapidly. In terms of revenue, LinkedIn's global annual revenue has exceeded $10 billion, which has tripled in the past five years, and is the second largest social giant in the United States after Facebook, with revenues about twice the size of Twitter and Snapchat. At the same time, the Chinese market is the third largest market in the LinkedIn after the United States and India, with a total membership of more than 56 million. Revenue from enterprise-level users will also be an important growth area for LinkedIn, with 97% of Fortune 500 companies serving customers LinkedIn, of which 99% of Fortune 500 companies cooperate with LinkedIn on multiple business lines.
From this point of view, whether it originated from large recruitment websites that actively seek employment, or some platforms based on workplace social networking, there is still no product in China that can fully benchmark and form a direct competitive relationship with LinkedIn. LinkedIn China story is still to be expected.