Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Finance, Entertainment Shut India Operations From Today Over New FDI Rules

Yahoo said new FDI regulations limit foreign ownership of digital media companies operating and publishing content in India in the 'News and Current Affairs' space, impacting its products.

File Image of Yahoo Logo

New Delhi: American web service provider Yahoo downed shutters on its content operations in India on Thursday. According to a statement on the Yahoo India homepage, there will be no content, including Yahoo News and Yahoo Cricket, available from now on.

"As of August 26th, 2021, Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content," Yahoo said.

It, however, added the Yahoo accounts, mails, and search experiences would not be affected "in any way and will operate as usual". 

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The offerings including Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Finance, Entertainment, and MAKERS India will be no longer accessible in the country.

What’s the reason behind the decision?

Yahoo said it has had a long association with India, and that it's "really proud of the premium, local content we have provided our users here for the last 20 years", as it thanked users in the country "for your support and trust in our brand".

Talking about the reason behind shutting its publication, the Yahoo statement said: "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."

On August 28, 2020, the central government approved 26 per cent FDI in digital media. Two months later, on 16 October, it released further details on the type of digital media entities the ruled would apply to.

These included digital media entities streaming or uploading news and current affairs on websites, apps, or other platforms; news agencies gathering, writing and distributing or transmitting news, directly or indirectly, to digital media entities and/or news aggregators; news aggregators, using software or web application, aggregating news content from various sources, such as websites, blogs, videos or user submitted links, in one location.

Starting from October 15, 2021, the digital news media entities in in India have to comply with the 26 per cent FDI policy.

The new IT rules imply that Yahoo India will have to restructure its media business within a specified timeframe to be able to operate the news and current affairs business in the country.

The group said, "Yahoo Mail is not covered by FDI regulations for digital media and is therefore not impacted by this change."

On whether it will resume operations in India in future, the web service provider said: “We’ve had a long association with India, and remain open to opportunities that connect us to users here."