Yahoo pulls the plug on Chinese email service
Internet giant Yahoo has pulled the plug on its Chinese email service, supplanting it with a simple statement inviting former users to transfer their accounts to Alibaba’s Alimail.
The closure of the service coincides with a gradual withdrawal from China of the Yahoo brand since its purchase of a $1bn stake in Alibaba back in 2005.
Since then Alibaba has grown to become a lead e-commerce platform, seeing it buy back 16 per cent of this stake last September for $7.6bn, leaving Yahoo with a $14bn stake remaining.
Yahoo is funneling this cash into other acquisitions to grow its presence in the Chinese market, notably the social network start-up Ztelic.
In recent months Yahoo has also shut down its Chinese music service as part of an ‘adjustment in our product strategy’.