Yahoo exits China due to challenging business environment
Yahoo said it had stopped allowing its services to be accessible from mainland China as of 1st November “in recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal environment.”
This is the second Western tech brand to quit the country in recent weeks, with Linkedin being pulled from China last month by Microsoft.
In an official statement, Yahoo said: “Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support.”
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.
In May, Verizon Communications sold Yahoo and its other media businesses to private equity firm Apollo Global for $5 billion.
The Chinese website of tech blog Engadget, which was also sold in the deal, was also unavailable on Tuesday and only displayed Yahoo’s announcement on no longer providing content for mainland China users.