Following the re-establishment of its Beijing research and development center in 2009, Yahoo has recently set up its seventh research institute in Beijing.

Jack Ma, founder, chairman and CEO of China's e-commerce company Alibaba Group, has announced that beginning in 2010 the company will earmark 0.3% of annual revenue to environmental protection, particularly on water and air quality improvement projects.

Taobao.com, the Chinese Internet shopping website owned by Alibaba Group, and Yahoo Japan, which is held by Japan's Softbank Group, have reached a strategic cooperation deal.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China, an association based in Beijing comprised of journalists representing non-Chinese media, has issued an alert because some of its members have reportedly had their email accounts hacked.

News from many outlets the past week is that Google is planning to announce a withdrawal from China today. Google's departure will boost rivals like Baidu.com, but it is a no-win scenario for Google.

Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group is sparring with Yahoo, one of its partners, over statements Yahoo reportedly made last week about Google's hacking situation.

Chinese online search engine Baidu.com went down today in an episode some users suspect has to do with Iranian Internet hackers.

Seven search engine service providers from China have jointly signed a self-discipline compact in Beijing.

Chinese online gaming firm Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2009, and showed consolidated net revenues increased 48% year-over-year and 12% quarter-over-quarter to CNY1.38 billion.

According to reports in Taiwanese local media, Taiwan-based social networking site Wretch recently announced that the number of its members had reached over 6.5 million, making it the largest SNS in Taiwan.

Following the announcement of the closure of its social networking service Yahoo Guanxi a few days ago, China Yahoo has now announced on its official forum that it will shut its space service on October 30, 2009.

According to a report published by China Yahoo's community operation department, the company plans to close its one-year-old social networking site Yahoo Guanxi on October 30, 2009.

Four years after acquiring a 40% stake in China-based Alibaba Group for USD1 billion, Yahoo has sold all of its shares in Alibaba.com, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, for about USD150 million.

As a result of the separation of Koubei.com from China Yahoo, local media reports that about 100 employees from Koubei.com in Beijing may resign from the company.

Chinese B2B e-commerce group Alibaba.com has announced that based on its "Big Taobao" strategy, the group will merge its lifestyle website Yahoo Koubei into its Internet shopping platform Taobao.com.