Yahoo Pulls Out Of China For Good
Yahoo pulls out of China for good
Yahoo has announced that it will be ceasing operations in China, making it the latest American technology company to do so.
A Yahoo spokesperson said in a statement that the company terminated the service "in light of the increasingly difficult business and legal environment."
"Yahoo is committed to protecting our users' rights and promoting a free and open internet, and this commitment has not changed. We are grateful to our customers for their business."
The Chinese market has been deprived of many of Yahoo's features since 2013, including email and news, since 2013. Yahoo shut down its Beijing office in 2015, resulting in the loss of approximately 300 jobs in the region.
A Yahoo subsidiary has joined Microsoft's (MSFT) LinkedIn social network, which announced last month that it would exit China due to the "significantly more difficult operating environment and stringent compliance requirements" that exist in the country.
The operation of private companies in China has long been fraught with difficulties, but Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently orchestrated a broad regulatory crackdown on the technology, education, gaming, and entertainment industries, wiping out a significant portion of the market value of some of the country's largest corporations.
A commitment to strengthen the rules governing monopolistic behavior and technological innovation is included in the country's most recent five-year plan. Authorities also urged "law enforcement" to intervene in areas where "vital interests of people" are at risk, such as financial services, education, and tutoring, in order to protect those interests.
Over the last decade, Yahoo has gone from being one of the world's largest technology companies to being a minor player in the field. Numerous CEOs attempted to turn around the company, but none were successful in restoring Yahoo's former dominance in the search and advertising markets. Verizon was recently acquired by Apollo Global Management for $5 billion in a deal that valued the company at the time.
Alibaba, China's e-commerce behemoth, was founded by the company, which was an early investor. Many years later, after selling roughly half of its massive stake in Alibaba for $7.1 billion, Yahoo returned $3 billion to shareholders as a result of the transaction.
