Yahoo China has sent an official email to its mailbox users, stating that the company will close its email service on August 19, 2013, and all user data will be temporarily taken over by Alibaba's cloud-based service Aliyun.com.
The official email said that users can register a new mailbox on Aliyun.com to keep their mail history in Yahoo mailbox until December 31, 2014. At the same time, Yahoo China warned that all these operations need to be completed before August 19, 2013; otherwise, all the emails and contacts in Yahoo mailbox will be deleted and cannot be restored.
Yahoo's global platform manager recently said that the company will close several products in April, including Blackberry applications, avatars, and message boards.
In August 2005, China's Alibaba Group signed a cooperation agreement with Yahoo. Under the agreement, Yahoo exchanged USD1 billion cash and the assets of Yahoo China into about 40% ordinary shares of Alibaba Group, making it a major shareholder of Alibaba Group.
After that, Yahoo China's growth has been bumpy. Recent rumors were that Alibaba Group plans to return Yahoo China to Yahoo.com in May 2013.