Yahoo India has shut its content operations in India, citing new foreign direct investment regulations (FDI), effective from August 26. The company closed the offerings including Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Finance, Entertainment and MAKERS India from Thursday. These websites will no longer be accessible in India. American technology firm Verizon Media bought Yahoo in 2017.
Explaining the reason behind ceasing its publication in the country, the popular media company mentioned, “The new FDI regulations for digital media limit foreign ownership of media companies that operate and publish digital content in India in the ‘News and Current Affairs’ space, impacting our products Yahoo Cricket, Finance, News, Entertainment, and MAKERS India.”
Starting from October 15, 2021, the digital news media should comply with the 26 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in India. In November 2020, Union ministry of information and broadcasting said that the companies, which have more than 26 per cent FDI, will be bound to seek government approval and also bring foreign shareholding down to 26 per cent by the next one year.
“We did not come to this 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,” the company said in a message posted on a website.
However, this will not impact their Yahoo Mail account users and their email ids. “There will be no impact on your Yahoo Mail account from this development. Your email ID will remain unchanged,” the company said. “Yahoo Mail will continue to operate in India as normal. Click https://in.mail.yahoo.com to access your Yahoo Mail account,” it added.
Reiterating it, Verizon-owned media group said,” Yahoo Mail is not covered by FDI regulations for digital media and is therefore not impacted by this change..”
On resuming operation again in India in future, the media house said, “We’ve had a long association with India, and remain open to opportunities that connect us to users here.”
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Assembly Elections Live Updates here.
Comments
0 comment