Yahoo is leaving the China market, suspending its services as of Monday, in what is an “increasingly challenging” business and legal environment.
Foreign technology firms are pulling down or pulling down their operations in mainland China as a stricter data privacy law specifies how companies collect and store data.
Such companies have decided regulatory uncertainty and reputational risks outweigh the benefits of being in a huge market.
Which foreign technology companies have recently reduced operations or left China?
Yahoo A statement on Tuesday said that its services in China had ceased as of November 1. Users visiting the Yahoo-run Engadget China site this week received a popup notice saying the site would not publish any new content.
last month, Microsoft’s professional networking platform linkedin said it would shut down the Chinese version of its site this year and replace it with a job board with no social networking function.
epic games, which operates the popular video game fortnite, also says that it will take the game out of the China market by November 15th. The game was launched in China through a partnership with China’s largest gaming company, Tencent, which owns a 40 percent stake in Epic.
Why are companies leaving China now?
NS personal information protection law Which took effect on November 1, sets standards for the amount of information companies are allowed to collect and how it should be stored. Companies must obtain users’ consent to collect, use or share data and provide users with ways to opt out of data-sharing.
Companies must also obtain permission to send personal information of users abroad.
The new law raises the cost of compliance and increases uncertainty for Western companies operating in China. Companies that violate the rules can be fined 50 million CNY (approximately Rs 58.17 crore) or up to 5 percent of their annual revenue.
Chinese regulators are cracking down on technology companies, seeking to curb their influence and address complaints that some companies misuse data and engage in other tactics that hurt the interests of consumers.
The decline and departure also comes in the form of a confrontation between the US and China over technology and trade. Washington imposes sanctions on telecommunications equipment giants Huawei And other Chinese tech companies allege they have links with China’s military and government.
Local companies are also feeling the heat, e-commerce companies like Alibaba facing fine. Regulators are investigating some companies and have imposed stricter rules that affect gaming firms such as net ease and Tencent.
What other obstacles do foreign tech companies face in China?
China operates what is known as “great firewall“Which uses laws and technologies to enforce censorship.
Content and keywords deemed politically sensitive or inappropriate should be removed from the Internet. Companies should police their platforms, delete posts and make sensitive keywords unsearchable.
Western social media networks like Facebook And Twitter Long blocked by the Great Firewall and generally inaccessible to people in mainland China.
“China has established a very strict policy governing Internet operators, telling them what to do and specifically what not to do,” said Francis Lun, CEO of GEO Securities Ltd in Hong Kong.
“I guess the question comes down to why bother (operating as a foreign company in China) with such limited returns and such huge liabilities,” he said.
Michael Norris, a research strategy manager at Shanghai-based consultancy agency China, said compliance costs would increase further.
“Fortnite’s exit is particularly damaging, because it doesn’t even show a close partnership and investment business with Tencent is close enough to make the case for business work,” he said.
Foreign tech companies operating in China also face pressure from their domestic markets. Some US lawmakers criticized LinkedIn’s censorship of US journalist profiles in China. In 2007, Yahoo was reprimanded for handing over information about Chinese dissidents to the Chinese government, which eventually led to his imprisonment.
What does this mean for Internet users in China?
Chinese alternatives have popped up over the years to fill the void left by foreign social media platforms that have left to operate under the Great Firewall.
Instead of GoogleChina’s most popular search engine Baidu. messaging apps like WeChat is used in place of WhatsApp Or Messenger. WeiboThe closest equivalent is Twitter, a microblogging platform with over 560 million Chinese users.
Unless they use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide their Internet traffic and location and bypass Web restrictions, the Chinese have fewer options for social networking and access to content and are strictly censored. Can turn to local alternatives made.
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