Dajie, China’s Linked In, Breaks Out With New Funds

While names like Renren (NYSE: RENN), Kaixin and Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) battle it out for supremacy in the mainstream social networking space, another less-known name, Dajie, has quietly popped onto the scene with a new round of funding in its drive to become China’s version of professional networking site Linked In. Chinese media are reporting that Dajie.com, founded just three years ago, has received a round of venture funding in the neighborhood of $10 million from a respectable field of investors that includes Fidelity Growth Partners Asia and leading education services provider New Oriental (NYSE: EDU). (English article) Industry watchers will note that Linked In (NYSE: LNKD), which raised $350 million in a May IPO, isn’t blocked in China, but also that it hasn’t made an especially strong effort to cultivate the China market. Frankly speaking, I think the market for a more professional-type service like Linked In in China is probably relatively small, as most people who use SNS in China tend to be quite young and like to mostly chatter on these sites. But as these same young people grow up and move into white collar jobs, sites like Dajie could easily become a hot ticket in the China Internet market, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Linked In takes a serious look at China in the next 2 to 3 years as that happens, assuming that China doesn’t lock it out the way it has with other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. (previous post) Considering that Dajie is probably at least 2-3 years away from an IPO at the earliest, I’d say this is definitely a company to watch and one that could offer investors a good way to tap into the growing legions of young white-collar Chinese with increasing amounts of money to spend.

Bottom line: Dajie looks like a good player to watch in the underdeveloped field of SNS for professionals, and could become the country’s next Linked In following a new round of funding.

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