LinkedIn crosses the Pond and gets connected to the French state-run job site Apec (Association pour l’emploi des cadres). This board proposes job roles and information for candidates who are interested in excecutive positions. Thus it exists next to the governmental emlpoyment site of the ANPE. The co-operation will start next Tuesday (March 11th). Apec is very popular among both companies and job seekers. The posting of vacancies is free for national firms.

LinkedIn is not yet well-positioned at the French market, which was due to a missing local language version. Apart from that, the professional networking platform Viadeo is a big success in France and is used by approximately 1 million users there (2 million worldwide). So I’m sure this co-operation will be highly beneficial for LinkedIn.

However, I wonder why Viadeo did not make the deal with Apec. Do they think that the whole Apec clientele is already listed in their network? Are they too strongly focused on markets abroad (the site is available in 5 languages and members can set up several profiles in different languages from their account)?

I’m curious to see how LinkedIn will do in France in the future. Since the French like to play around and try new things, this partnership might turn out very fruitful for the Americans.

Sources: TechCrunch und Neteco