About 350 employees are set to lose their jobs as Yahoo leaves China, ending a decade-long business partnership between the country and the American Internet giant.

According to Young's China Business Blog, the move may be a  result of internal problems within the company, as well as a reflection of the diffulties that foreign companies face in China's restrictive business environment.

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Yahoo is particularly closing its Reseach and Development Center in Beijing, its last unit of operations in the country that started five years ago.

Prior to its closure, the center had been developing items and services that are not geared toward the Chinese market anymore.

Two years ago, Yahoo had closed its email service in the country.

Soon, Yahoo will reportedly sell its shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, to enable it to transform into a separate company.

This is seen as an end of a venture that had big hopes at the beginning, and where billions of dollars had been invested for the past 10 years.

Yahoo has confirmed its withdrawal from China, but it provided no further details.

Analysts say Yahoo decided to leave China as a way to minimize the cost of production.

It can easily get the same services in other countries at a much lower rate.

Yahoo has bought a firm that was China's biggest search player, when it entered the country as one of its pioneer internet companies.

But Yahoo was later on defeated by global rival Google due to mismanagement.

As if it was not enough, it was also overtaken by the local internet giant, Baidu, that now ranks number one in the Chinese market.

Yahoo decided to buy the 40 percent share of Alibaba 9 years ago, at $1 billion, to add strength to its local operations.

The dual partnership was effective in the beginning, until Yahoo had a change in management, which proved to be incompatible with its counterpart in Alibaba.

The announcement of Yahoo's pull-out from China signals the end of the relationship that has long been struggling to keep itself afloat.

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