Africa-Press – Namibia. As of November 1, Yahoo said it had permanently suspended its services to mainland China. “In recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment in China, Yahoo’s suite of services will no longer be accessible from mainland China as of November 1,” a Yahoo spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support.”
Yahoo’s move follows that of Microsoft Corp, which pulled the plug on Linkedin in China last month, marking the retreat of the last major U.S.-owned social network in China. Linkedin cited a “more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China”.
Yahoo had already greatly scaled back its presence in China over the past few years. Prior to Monday, it had still operated a weather app and some pages that showed news articles in foreign languages.
Yahoo entered China in 1998 and in 2012 struck a deal with Alibaba Group to sell its stake in the e-commerce giant. The deal also saw Alibaba obtain the right to operate Yahoo China under the Yahoo brand for up to four years.
Yahoo China later shut its email service and web portal but the brand retained a global research and development center in Beijing until 2015, when it was shut down.
Its departure comes as Beijing has imposed fresh curbs on its internet companies on areas from content to customer privacy as well as new laws. On Monday, its new Personal Information Protection law designed to protect online user data privacy came into effect.
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