(Photo : Yahoo Booth)

August 31^st, Yahoo! China, an Internet property under Alibaba Group, issues a notice on its official website, saying that based on the agreement between Alibaba Group and Yahoo Inc. in 2012, Yahoo! China will change its business strategies. From 0:00 a.m. on September 1^st, 2013, Yahoo! China will shut down its information and community services in China. And the original team will focus on the social public service for Alibaba Group.

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It means Yahoo! China will completely give up the information and community services. Previously, Yahoo! China has closed its email service in China. Tomorrow, Yahoo! China is going to shut down its information and community services. What will the homepage of Yahoo! China be like tomorrow?  

Yahoo! China leaves us with a regrettable sign. Since Alibaba Group acquired Yahoo! China from Yahoo Inc. in the United States in 2005, eight years later, Yahoo! China didn't turn into a Chinese web portal gorgeously; instead, its life seems to come an end.

In fact, after Alibaba bought Yahoo! China, Yahoo! China has tried nearly all the Internet service such as search, e-mail, instant messaging, portals and reputation services in the first several years. However, after many adjustments on the business and working team, Yahoo! China still fails to become an influential web portal in China.

Even worse, the relationship between Alibaba and Yahoo Inc. is strained day by day. In 2010, the two sides fell out.

In September 2012, Alibaba paid $7.6 billion to buy back Yahoo's 21% stake of Alibaba Group. And the two sides also reached an agreement if Alibaba went public by the end of 2015, Alibaba would have to right to buy back half of Yahoo's remaining stake of Alibaba Group.

In March 2013, Alibaba Group announced they had reached a new agreement with Yahoo! Inc. and they had obtained another four years to run "Yahoo! China" under the brand of "Yahoo". In exchange, Yahoo is free to invest in China without restriction.

Why Yahoo couldn't invest in China before? According to earlier agreement between Yahoo and Alibaba in 2005, Yahoo's Chinese brand belongs to Alibaba Group, which means all the investments should go through Yahoo! China, which means Yahoo! Inc. can only carry out research and development works in China instead of any Internet business. Yahoo! China will shut down all its information and community services tomorrow. Maybe Yahoo! Inc. will take over the Chinese market again.