Citing an increasingly challenging business and legal environment, Yahoo is exiting from China. With Chinese authorities maintaining a firm grip over what goes on the internet domestically while requiring companies to censor content and keywords that are deemed politically sensitive or inappropriate.
In a statement to Reuters, the company announced its exit, saying that its services were no longer accessible from mainland China as of Monday:
“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"
Yahoo is the second company that is exiting its business from China within a month. In October, Microsoft"s LinkedIn also decided to pull the plug on its Chinese version of the platform citing the same reasons. LinkedIn said that it was having trouble in the social aspects of sharing and staying informed due to challenging environments and greater compliance requirements. Epic Games has shut down its localized version of Fortnite in China as well.
China also requires that companies must hand over data if requested by authorities which makes it difficult for western companies to operate since they might also face backlash at their own country giving in to Chinese demands. Although Yahoo is officially exiting now, many of its services including its web portal have already been blocked in China along with most international social media and search engines like Facebook, Twitter, and Google.