TLDR
Maimai (脉脉) is China’s largest real-name professional network, the closest thing to LinkedIn now that LinkedIn has left the country. LinkedIn shut its main China network in 2021 and closed its last China app, InCareer, in August 2023, which leaves Maimai as the default B2B platform. It reports over 110 million registered members. For foreign B2B brands it is the main channel to reach Chinese decision-makers for lead generation, employer branding, and expert outreach.
Missed the LinkedIn exit from China? Your competitors, especially the local ones, didn’t: they’re already on Maimai. When LinkedIn walked away, it left a gap in professional networking that Maimai now fills. We’ve helped foreign brands open verified accounts and run B2B campaigns in China for over a decade, and Maimai has gone from a “nice to have” to the platform you cannot skip if you sell to Chinese businesses.
Updated July 2026. Platform figures and the LinkedIn timeline are current as of this date.
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Why LinkedIn’s exit left Maimai the winner
With LinkedIn gone, Maimai (脉脉), China’s real-name professional network, is now the default B2B platform in the country. LinkedIn had run a localized China network since 2014, then announced in October 2021 that it would shut that network to comply with local rules. It replaced it with a jobs-only app called InCareer, and closed that too on August 9, 2023, alongside 716 layoffs (Fortune; CNN; SCMP, May 2023). The full arc is 2021 for the social network, 2023 for the last app.
The reason InCareer failed is the proof that Maimai already owned the space. At its closure, InCareer had about 959,600 monthly active users (Analysys, March 2023), against domestic rivals like 51job at 18.5 million, Boss Zhipin at 17.3 million, and Liepin at 6.7 million (SCMP, 2023). It never competed. For a foreign B2B brand that means there is no LinkedIn fallback left in China. It is Maimai or nothing, and that changes how seriously you should treat it.
What is Maimai?
Maimai (脉脉) is China’s largest real-name professional network, launched in 2013 by Lin Fan’s Taou (淘友) team. Think of it as the local answer to LinkedIn: professionals register under real identities, build profiles, connect by industry and company, follow workplace news, and job-hunt. What sets it apart from a straight LinkedIn clone is a large anonymous workplace section that sits alongside the real-name graph, which we’ll come back to because it cuts both ways for brands.
On scale, be careful with the headline number. Maimai reports over 110 million registered members, and some 2025 sources cite 120 million or more. Registered is not the same as active: registration counts accumulate and include dormant and duplicate accounts, so the number of people actually on the platform in a given month is far lower. We treat the 110 million as a reach ceiling, not an audience you can address. The point that matters for a foreign brand is not the raw count but who is on it and how reachable they are.
Who’s on Maimai
Maimai’s user base is primarily male, highly educated, high-earning urban professionals concentrated in tier-1 cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. Most sit in the 25-to-35 age band, white-collar, many with startup or tech backgrounds, and a meaningful share hold managerial roles. Exact splits vary by source and year, so treat any single percentage with caution, but the shape is stable and it is close to ideal for B2B: the people making or influencing purchase decisions are the people on the platform.
Why B2B brands need Maimai now
Maimai is where foreign B2B brands do the three jobs LinkedIn used to do in China: generate leads, build an employer brand, and run expert and KOL outreach. This is the part most guides skip. They describe the platform’s features without saying what you actually do with them, so here is the operator’s version.
Lead generation
Maimai lets you filter by region, industry, company, job title, and school to reach decision-makers directly, which is the whole point of a real-name network. Because identities are verified, the person you find is the person you get, not an anonymous handle. For a foreign brand selling into China, that targeting precision is the difference between a warm route to a purchasing manager and shouting into a feed.
Employer branding
Maimai doubles as an employer-branding channel through recruitment plazas and workplace live streaming, and who you hire signals how serious you are about China. Talent watches this. A brand that shows up as a credible, growing employer attracts better candidates and reads as committed to the market. The honest caveat: the anonymous section below means your employer reputation is also discussed where you don’t control it, so employer branding on Maimai cuts both ways.
B2B KOL and expert outreach
B2B KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) on Maimai are respected CEOs, academics, and industry experts, not the consumer celebrities you’d chase on Douyin or Xiaohongshu. This is where professional authority lives, so a technical endorsement or an expert’s post carries real weight with a business audience. Our take: for B2B, one credible industry voice on Maimai moves more pipeline than a large consumer influencer ever will, because the audience is buyers, not fans.
Maimai’s features and ad formats
Maimai makes money from B2B advertising, paid memberships, recruitment services, and employer-reputation reports, and its ad formats are built around its feed and its anonymous section. If the section above was what you can do on Maimai, this is how the platform actually works.
Search and VIP
Maimai’s search runs across six categories: names, job postings, anonymous posts, trending topics, market news, and real-name stories. Free accounts hit a monthly connection cap; a paid VIP tier, around 70 CNY a month at recent listings, lifts those limits and unlocks fuller search. For active outreach the VIP tier is effectively mandatory, since the free cap runs out fast once you start prospecting seriously. Pricing and limits shift, so confirm the current rate before you budget.
Ad formats
Maimai’s ad inventory is built for a professional audience, not a consumer scroll. The core formats:
- Splash ads: the full-screen placement shown on app open, for broad brand exposure.
- Homepage in-feed ads: native placements in the main feed, matched to user profiles.
- Trending-post placements: brand presence around the high-traffic workplace-discussion feed (the section names shift, so check current inventory).
- Job-broadcast banners: recruitment-oriented placements, useful for employer-brand campaigns.
- Native topic and brand marketing: sponsored themes and content built into the professional context.
- Employer-brand campaigns: workplace live streaming and recruitment plazas that double as reach and hiring.
Rate cards and minimum spends move, and Maimai doesn’t publish them openly, so plan on a qualitative brief first and firm numbers once you’re in the account. We’ll scope realistic figures for your category when we map the campaign.
The anonymous side: Maimai’s edge and its risk
Maimai’s anonymous workplace section (职言, “Workplace Talk”) drove its growth and is its biggest reputational wildcard. It is where employees post candidly about pay, management, and conditions without their names attached, which is exactly what made Maimai indispensable to Chinese white-collar workers and exactly what makes it volatile. Beijing authorities ordered a rectification of the anonymous section in July 2018 over rumor and defamation concerns (TechNode, 2018). The section has since hosted market-moving posts, including the viral 2021 thread about a Pinduoduo employee’s death that put the company’s overtime culture under national scrutiny.
For a brand, the lesson is straightforward: monitor it, because your employer reputation in China partly lives here whether you engage or not. That is the trade. The same candor that makes Maimai valuable for market intelligence means unhappy employees can shape how your company is seen. We treat the anonymous section as something to watch on every client account, not something to ignore.
We Can Help You Launch on Maimai
With LinkedIn gone from China and Maimai now the route to Chinese decision-makers, the platform is hard to skip for B2B, and hard to get onto cold. Opening a verified account is document-heavy, the paperwork is in Chinese, and it’s more complicated still if your business isn’t registered in the country. We’ve spent over a decade opening verified China accounts and running B2B campaigns for foreign brands, so we handle the setup and build the strategy around it.
Talk to us about launching your brand on Maimai and we’ll cover account verification, the right mix of lead gen, employer branding, and expert outreach, and a budget that fits your category.
FAQ
Is Maimai the same as the arcade game?
No, and the mix-up is common. Maimai (脉脉) is China’s professional networking app. “Maimai” (maimai DX) is also a Sega arcade rhythm game, which dominates a lot of English search results for the bare word. When you’re researching the business platform, add “China” or “professional network” to your search.
Did LinkedIn leave China?
Yes. LinkedIn shut its localized China social network in 2021 and closed its final China app, the jobs-only InCareer, on August 9, 2023. There is no full LinkedIn service operating in mainland China today, which is the main reason Maimai now matters so much for B2B. The exit section above has the full timeline.
Can a foreign company use Maimai?
Yes, with a verified account, though setup is the hurdle. Verification is document-heavy and in Chinese, and it’s more involved if your company isn’t registered in China. Most foreign brands run the process through a local partner or agency rather than attempting it cold.
How much does Maimai advertising cost?
Maimai doesn’t publish open rate cards, and costs vary by format, targeting, and campaign scale, so there’s no single headline figure. Budget for a paid VIP tier (around 70 CNY a month) for outreach, then scope ad spend against your specific goals. We can give a realistic range for your category once we know the objective.
Is Maimai better than WeChat for B2B?
They do different jobs. Maimai gives you the professional identity graph: titles, companies, and direct reach to decision-makers. WeChat gives you depth, service, and ongoing relationship management once a contact is warm. Our take: use Maimai to find and reach B2B prospects, then move the relationship into WeChat to nurture it.
