Microsoft has a long history in China, having entered the market in 1992. (TWTR), are blocked by the Chinese government’s massive censorship apparatus known as the Great Firewall. Its presence in the country, where it has more than 45 million users, is notable because many other Western social networks, including Facebook LinkedIn has been available in China since 2014. A sweeping regulatory crackdown in recent months has wiped an estimated $3 trillion off the market value of China’s biggest firms. Operating in China has always been challenging for private companies, but the screws have tightened further in the past year under Chinese President Xi Jinping. “While we’ve found success in helping Chinese members find jobs and economic opportunity, we have not found that same level of success in the more social aspects of sharing and staying informed,” Shroff said.

The company will instead roll out a new platform called InJobs later this year, a China-only portal that will “not include a social feed or the ability to share posts or articles” but simply serve as a portal to list and apply for jobs. (MSFT), made the decision because of a “significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China,” Mohak Shroff, senior vice president of engineering at LinkedIn, said in a blog post Thursday. The career networking platform, owned by Microsoft LinkedIn will shut down the local version of its service in China, marking a significant retreat for one of the few large US tech firms still operating in the country.

Is linkedin down