back to article Yahoo! shuts! down! last! China! operations! as! doing! business! becomes! 'increasingly challenging'!

Yahoo! has confirmed it is quitting China due to the "increasingly challenging" business and legal environment just as the country's new Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) comes into effect. Starting November 1, 2021, global companies doing business in the country must comply with PIPL, which regulates the storage of …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    oh, btw

    the ticker on the front page of the register is MOST annoying and MOST unwelcome.

    1. chivo243 Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: oh, btw

      I was hoping my Pi-hole would remove it... ;-{

    2. jake Silver badge

      Re: oh, btw

      Ticker?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: oh, btw

      Ticker? TICKER? we don't need no steeenking ticker.!!!!!:-)

      It doesn't show up for me.

      1. cyberdemon Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: oh, btw

        Nor me. NoScript ftw. Better than any adblocker.

  2. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    Who knew...

    Who knew that Yahoo were even still a thing...

    1. chivo243 Silver badge
      Windows

      Re: Who knew...

      I still have a yahoo account, but the only mail I've received is from yahoo! I know a few people who still use it... Some of them aren't the sharpest tools in the IT shed.

      1. Rich 2 Silver badge

        Re: Who knew...

        Up until about 3 years ago, my brother sill used AOL for his Internet connection. Beggars belief! That AOL is still a thing and that my brother is such a dick

        1. Youngone

          Re: Who knew...

          At one point I had an extensive collection of AOL install CD's, despite living half a world away from America.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Re: Who knew...

        I have a yahoo? account to track the lack of progress of the class action suit.

        Periodically I delete the spam folder.

    2. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

      Re: Who knew...

      I think there are a few indicators for imminent failure of a company:

      - Abuses customers in favor of profit

      - Focuses more on government politics than public opinion

      - Apathy towards abuses of their services (or encourages it for profit)

      - Shifts attention from architecting amazing products to architecting amazing offices

      By these metrics, Google is following the path of imminent collapse that Yahoo blazed 20 years ago, while Yahoo could make a comeback for no better reason than sucking less than Google.

  3. Frank Zuiderduin

    That thing with exclamation points after every word of the title of a Yahoo item is really getting old...

    1. aerogems Silver badge

      But to be fair, how often is Yahoo in the news anymore? How often do you have to see it? Maybe once a quarter, if that?

    2. AMBxx Silver badge
      Stop

      FTFY:

      That! thing! with! exclamation! points! after! every! word! of! the! title! of! a! Yahoo! item! is! really! getting! old!

    3. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

      RE: exclamation points after every word of the title of a Yahoo item is really getting old...

      It could have been worse

      Yahoo shriek shuts bang down bang last shriek China shriek operations shriek as shriek doing shriek business shriek becomes shriek 'increasingly challenging' bang.

    4. jake Silver badge
      Pint

      And as El Reg helpfully pointed out in TFA ...

      ...the angrier you get, the funnier it gets.

      A beer for the editors.

      1. luminous
        Pint

        Re: And as El Reg helpfully pointed out in TFA ...

        And make that a double. El Reg took up my suggestion of slanting the exclamation points too. It's a jab at Yahoo!'s branding.

        I still have an account, which I opened in 2003. I don't really use it anymore, it's okay for the occasional test message.

        How many years before it's closing everywhere not just in China. From what I know, a lot of people in the US still use it for news, but maybe that's an old stat.

        1. cyberdemon Silver badge
          Pint

          Re: And as El Reg helpfully pointed out in TFA ...

          Speaking of beers for the editors: Did anyone bother to translate the sub-title?

          Made me chuckle.

          1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

            Re: And as El Reg helpfully pointed out in TFA ...

            No, but I did now! Classic El Reg!

  4. aerogems Silver badge
    FAIL

    Applaud The Move, Despise The Reasons

    If they were leaving out of protest over an increasingly authoritarian government, I would be quite happy and hope other western companies would follow Yahoo's lead. However, let's face it, none of them ever will. Yahoo's only leaving because they won't be able to harvest and sell all that sweet personal data about Chinese citizens, which means they can't turn a profit in the country, so they're pulling up stakes.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Applaud The Move, Despise The Reasons

      On the other hand, China is making it difficult for Western companies to do business in China. Perhaps they think they have enough dollars?

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Applaud The Move, Despise The Reasons

        It's been clear for many years what the long term Chinese plan is. It's reaching fruition now. Attract foreign companies with seemingly attractive terms, legally take their IP etc., then make it very difficult for them to remain while developing local alternatives.

        1. eldel

          Re: Applaud The Move, Despise The Reasons

          legally take their IP

          I don't think legality has much to do with it. Well, not according to international norms anyway.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All your privacy are belong to us

    Is the motto of the CCP and Facebook. More than a coincidence...?

    1. Youngone

      Re: All your privacy are belong to us

      The difference between the CCP and Facebook is that that CCP was completely up front about the terms of trade when they opened up to investment from the West.

      In return for access to cheap labour and a growing consumer market all they had to do was agree to the terms on the understanding the terms might change without notice, and they fell over themselves to sign up.

      Facebook has never really been that honest.

  6. jake Silver badge

    One wonders If Australia is taking notice.

    Big companies are not afraid to pull out of the HUGE Chinese market now that it's becoming expensive to do business there. Can little tiny Australia (by population, of course) be far behind?

    1. ShadowSystems

      Re: One wonders If Australia is taking notice.

      If companies decide not to do business there it will most likely be down to the fact that everything there- all the plants, animals, people, & things -are actively trying to kill you. =-J

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: One wonders If Australia is taking notice.

      The alternative is that other countries develop the balls to insist on privacy of personal data (looking at the EU's persistent efforts to fudge the issue with privacy fig-leaves etc. and HMG running in totally the opposite direction). At that point the big tech firms would have to start looking at different business models.

  7. Jonjonz

    Oops, some Yahoo suit publicly uttered Republic of China.

  8. steviebuk Silver badge

    Disney

    " In the long run, we will find out just how far commercial entities are willing to go in order to maximise shareholder value, but we might not like the answer.”

    I like Disney, how it was, the idea but they have no morales. Pandered to the CCP just to get the Chinese market for the new Mulan film, did a press event in the city the genocide is happening in and just generally only cared about how much money they could make. Which spectacularly back fired. They still try to blame it on piracy in China but it had fuck all to do with that. Was to do with a fucked movie, that completely changed the story and got lots of Chinese references wrong as we see from the Chinese reviews.

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