Yahoo Exits China, Citing 'Challenging Business And Legal Environment'

Yahoo Inc. announced the withdrawal of its services from China, citing difficulties in maintaining operations within the nation’s restrictive technological environment.

What Happened: The company, which is majority owned by Apollo Global Management Inc. APO with Verizon Communications VZ holding a 10% stake, declared it could no longer easily provide its services to the Chinese market.

“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 spokesman said. “Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and a free and open internet. We thank our users for their support.”

The Wall Street Journal noted the announcement was a long time coming, as Yahoo Inc. began to withdraw its main services including email and news from China in 2013. Internet users will not be able to access Yahoo-operated websites and apps from the Chinese mainland.

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What Else Happened: Yahoo is the second U.S. technology presence to exit from China, following last month’s decision by Microsoft MSFT to remove its LinkedIn social networking site from the country.

The departure of the U.S. companies coincides with the Nov. 1 enactment of China’s Personal Information Protection Law, which is designed to curb data collection by technology companies, which went into effect on Nov. 1.

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