Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn is unlinking its professional network platform from China, citing “a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China.”

The service will close later this year.

The localised version of LinkedIn was one of the few American tech platforms to achieve any success in China, launching in 2014, and serving 52 million users on mainland China.

Microsoft had paused new signups for the service this March, as it attempted to work with the country’s draconian regulators. It had been punished by the Chinese internet regulator for failing to censor political content on the platform.