- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
US WEB services provider Yahoo has shut down its news websites in India owing to new foreign direct investment (FDI) rules that restrict foreign ownership of media companies that publish digital content in India.
This includes Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Finance, Entertainment and MAKERS India. However, this move will not affect users’ Yahoo email and search experiences in India.
“As of August 26th, 2021, Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account, Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership,” a notice on the Yahoo website said.
In the FAQ section, the California-based firm said starting August 26, the company has ceased publication of content and its content operations in India.
“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. Yahoo has had a long association with India and we’re really proud of the premium, local content we have provided our users here for the last 20 years,” it said.
It also said that since Yahoo Cricket has 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 in the ‘News and Current Affairs’ space”.
Yahoo thanked all its users in India for the “support and trust” over the past two decades, and said that it remains “open to opportunities that connect us to users here”.
Under the new FDI regulations that will come into effect in October, digital media companies in India can accept up to 26 per cent investment in the form of foreign investment, subject to approval from the Narendra Modi government.
