LinkedIn is closing down the Chinese version of its social networking service for professionals, becoming the latest western company to shutter services in China amid increased competition and a tightening regulatory environment.The Microsoft-owned company announced on Tuesday it was shutting down InCareer, the pared-back job application site that had replaced the localised LinkedIn social networking site it closed in 2021. At the time, LinkedIn said it was facing a “significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements”.

LinkedIn wrote on its official WeChat account on Tuesday: “Although we have made initial progress in the past year, InCareer has faced increasingly fierce competition and macroeconomic challenges.” The service will close in three months on August 9, but the company will retain a presence in China to help local groups hire and train employees outside the country, it said.

Unlike the full LinkedIn site, InCareer does not have a social media feed or the ability to share posts or articles. Chinese online recruitment platform Boss Zhipin and social networking site Maimai have overtaken LinkedIn in China, where it launched in 2014 and once had tens of millions of regular users. Social media rivals Facebook and Twitter have been blocked in China for more than a decade.