Yahoo says Adieu to China!!

In October this year, the biggest career-oriented social network LinkedIn closed its operations in China citing a challenging environment to continue. In November, Yahoo one of the oldest and popular web service providers have decided to leave Beijing citing the same reason “challenging” environment. Both these companies are from the United States of America and cited similar reasons to exit from China. Not only LinkedIn and Yahoo, even Chinese companies Alibaba and TikTok also facing similar issues after Beijing tightens control over tech firms. Other multi-national organizations have been pulling out or cutting down their operations in China.

China’s uncompromised and strict data policy law showed how companies collect and store data forced companies either to reduce or close their operations in the country. Beijing’s fresh laws and curbs on its web service providers on areas from content to customer privacy. Personal information protection law in China took effect from November 01^st that controls the amount of information collected. As per the new law, Companies should get permission to send users’ personal data abroad. This caused increased costs on compliance and unnecessary operational expenses to Tech firms.

If companies are caught in violation of the legislation, they could be fined up to 50 million Yuan ($7.8 million) or 5% of their yearly revenue. LinkedIn, which was launched in China in 2014, lets people use personal and professional relationships to find job opportunities. Reportedly, LinkedIn was given a deadline by Chinese internet regulators to better oversee content on the site. More companies may leave Beijing in the coming days if Beijing continues to implement new legislation. Epic Games is also in thought to pull the game out from China as of November 15^th. China plans to fill out the gap with homegrown apps.