LinkedIn Founder, Reid Hoffman Looking for a Bigger Slice of China – Can He Really Succeed?

A professional social network like LinkedIn is clearly valuable. Its market cap is an impressive US$9 Billion and last traded at US$92.

Yesterday, news broke out that LinkedIn Founder, Reid Hoffman met with major internet companies in China to discuss plans to enter China in a more measured way. More specifically Hoffman met with search engine Baidu, e-commerce giant 360Buy.com and Facebook like social network RenRen.

Like many other international online social networks, LinkedIn has found it difficult to really penetrate into China. Last February access to the site was blocked by the Great Firewall. However, it would be too ignorant to assume that its shaky accessibility is the reason why it has not attracted as much traction as inside China. Currently the site is not blocked, so let’s examine why LinkedIn does not lead in China and why they will have a hard time seriously entering the market.

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