LinkedIn’s Chinese site to obey rules

LinkedIn is launching a Chinese-language site for the world’s most populous internet market and says it will comply with the communist government’s censorship rules.

The professional networking service will compete with established Chinese-language services Tianji, owned by France’s Viadeo SA, and homegrown rivals Ruolin and Dajie. LinkedIn says it has four million users in China but until now its service was in English.

Professional networking services see fast-developing economies such as China and India as important sources of growth. In China, LinkedIn says it sees a potential market of 140 million professionals. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and other sites, LinkedIn has always been allowed to operate in China.

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LinkedIn, based in Mountain View, California, acknowledged that expanding in China raises “difficult questions” because it will be required to censor content.

Google closed its mainland search engine in 2010 after a dispute over censorship. Chinese authorities block access to Twitter and Facebook.