From Microsoft to Yahoo to Epic Games, because US tech companies are fleeing China
Yahoo and Epic Games (Fortnite) are the latest U.S.-based tech companies to stop offering services in China, where tight government control over the internet forces companies to censor
Yahoo and Epic Games are also closing their doors in China.
Yahoo announced Tuesday that its services will no longer be accessible from mainland China starting November 1. “Yahoo remains committed to the rights of our users and to a free and open Internet. We thank our users for their support, ”reads a note.
Last May, Verizon sold Yahoo and other Verizon Communications media assets to US private equity group Apollo Global Management for $ 5 billion.
The Chinese website of the technology blog Engadget, which was sold under the deal, was also not available on Tuesday in the land of the Dragon.
Yahoo's move follows that of Microsoft which shut down the LinkedIn platform in China last month.
But Yahoo's decision could hinge on its new law on the protection of personal information in China coming into effect on Monday. Beijing has also blocked most social media and international search engines, such as Facebook and Google. Chinese users get around the block by using a virtual private network (VPN).
However, it is the second Western tech brand to leave the country in recent weeks. But it is not the last.
Even the company Epic Games – creator of the popular video game "Fortnite" – has announced that it will close its servers in China starting from November 15, after stopping the registrations of new users on Monday.
"The Fortnite China beta test will end and the servers will be shut down soon."
As Reuters recalled, China introduced new rules in August that limit the amount of time under 18s can spend playing video games. A move deemed necessary to combat gambling addiction.
All the details.
GOODBYE TO BEIJING
Yahoo stopped serving content for users in mainland China as of November 1, according to a statement posted on its website, which directed Yahoo and Aol Mail users to other links.
"Recognizing 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 company spokesperson said in a statement.
THE STORY OF YAHOO IN CHINA
Yahoo had already started a downsizing process of its operations in the Dragon, so much so that in 2015 it closed its Beijing office.
Yahoo entered China in 1998 and in 2012 struck a deal with Alibaba to sell its stake in the e-commerce giant. The deal also saw Alibaba gain the right to operate Yahoo China under the Yahoo brand for up to four years.
Yahoo China subsequently closed its email service and web portal, but the brand maintained a global R&D center in Beijing until 2015, when it closed.
FAIL OF THE NEW PRIVACY LAW?
As Axios pointed out, “Yahoo's withdrawal coincided with the start of China's Personal Information Protection Act, which determines the type of personal information domestic and international companies can collect from their users and determines how that information should be managed and transferred ".
The law, which went into effect on Monday, essentially creates a massive legal data protection regime in the country. Companies that break it can face hefty fines, depending on the severity of the violation, Axios reports.
THE ABANDONMENT OF EPIC GAMES
Finally, the Chinese experience of Fortnite is also about to end: Epic Games, the developer of the popular video game, has announced that on November 15 it will close the server that hosts the game in the country.
However, as of November 2nd, users are denied the ability to open a new account. For Chinese video game fans, this is another bad news, part of China's crackdown on the industry, with officials launching a campaign against teen addiction in late August.
NO FORTRESS NIGHT FOR THE CHINESE
Skip Fortress Night, therefore, the Chinese version of the video game, characterized by some differences compared to the standard one.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/da-microsoft-a-yahoo-fino-a-epic-games-perche-le-aziende-tech-usa-scappano-dalla-cina/ on Sat, 06 Nov 2021 07:27:21 +0000.