According to a source with knowledge of the meetings, Hoffman met with Baidu, 360.cn, Sina and Renren.com last week. "The content of their discussions was probably about LinkedIn entering China," the source said.
Describing itself as the world's "biggest professional social networking" site, LinkedIn has over 150 million members worldwide, 60 percent of whom are located outside the United States, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Hoffman is an investor of or consultant to more than 60 startups at the Silicon Valley, one of which is Facebook.
LinkedIn operates three main profit models, relying on recruitment, marketing and advanced subscription services for its revenue.
Currently, a number of sites in China offer service similar to LinkedIn such as Tianji.com, Wealink.com, Renhe.cn, Ushi.com, Jingwei.com and Aceona.com. Among them, Tianji.com merged with Viadeo, which in 2009 was touted to be the world's second largest professional social networking site after LinkedIn.
As such, competition from the Internet companies in China will be intense and the barrier to entry for foreign Internet companies entering China is not low.
LinkedIn last year opened an office in Singapore, which currently serves as its Asia-Pacific headquarters. The company's regional managing director, Arvind Rajan, then told ZDNet Asia that the office will drive expansion plans in Asia, and pointed to the "huge opportunities" in this region.
