Yahoo has finish off its news websites in India due the new foreign direct investment (FDI) rules that limit foreign ownership of media companies that operate and publish digital content in India.
This includes Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Finance, Entertainment and manufacturers India. This, however, won’t affect users’ Yahoo e-mail, and search experiences in India.
“As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will not be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account, Mail and Search experiences won’t be affected in any way and can operate as was common. We many thanks for your support and readership,” a notice on the Yahoo website said.
US tech major Verizon had acquired Yahoo in 2017.
In the FAQ section, Yahoo said effective August 26, 2021, the corporate has ceased publication of content in India and has stop working Yahoo’s content operations within the country.
“We failed to come to the current decision lightly. However, Yahoo India has been impacted by changes to regulatory laws in India that now limit the foreign ownership of media companies that operate and publish digital content in India. Yahoo has had an extended association with India and we’re really happy with the premium, local content we’ve got provided our users here for the last 20 years,” it said.
It added that providing Yahoo Cricket encompasses a ‘news’ component, “it was impacted under the new FDI regulations that limit foreign ownership of media companies that operate and publish digital content in India within the ‘News and Current Affairs’ space”.
Thanking all its users in India for the “support and trust” over the past twenty years, it noted that it remains “open to opportunities that connect us to users here”.
As per the new FDI regulations that may acquire effect in October, digital media companies in India can accept up to 26 per cent investment within the type of foreign investment, subject to approval from the central government.
“In case you’re a Yahoo Mail user, this variation doesn’t affect you in any way. This development doesn’t impact our products Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Search, where we are going to still serve users in India as before, with none change,” it said.
