San Fancisco - Yahoo's email service in China will close this summer as part of an arrangement worked out with its partner in that country, Alibaba Group.
The service is scheduled to close August 19. Yahoo is recommending users of its free email service in China to transfer their accounts to another provider such as Aliyun, an email alternative offered by Alibaba.
Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, has been phasing out of China since 2005 when it turned its website, email and other services over to Alibaba. As part of that deal, Yahoo paid $1-billion for a 40 percent stake in Alibaba, one of China's biggest Internet companies.
It has proven to be an astute investment. Yahoo reaped a $7.6-billion windfall by selling half its stake back to Alibaba last year. - Sapa-AP