Microsoft Shuts Chinese Web Portal as It Shifts Focus There
May 09 2016 - 5:57PM
Dow Jones News
By Jay Greene
Microsoft Corp. is shutting down its Chinese Web portal next
month as the company shifts its focus from providing online content
to offering software and services for Windows 10 devices.
The software giant, which is under investigation by Chinese
antitrust authorities, said it plans to continue to invest in other
business in the country as well as maintaining its research and
development operations there.
"Microsoft is deeply committed to China, offering a range of
products including Windows 10, cloud services, and hosting the
largest research and development center outside of the U.S.," said
a Microsoft spokeswoman.
Microsoft posted a notification on its MSN China website Monday
saying the portal, which delivers Web search services as well as
news and lifestyle information, will cease on June 7. After that
date, visitors to cn.msn.com will see a directory page of Chinese
websites along with a Bing search bar.
The company in September struck a deal with Chinese search giant
Baidu Inc. to make Baidu.com the default search engine and home
page in China for users of Microsoft's Edge browser. That deal was
part of Microsoft's effort to boost Windows 10 use in China, where
pirated versions of Windows are widely used. Baidu agreed as part
of the agreement to make it easier for its customers to update to
Windows 10.
The deal also helped Microsoft shift away from managing display
advertising, which is at the core of MSN. Last June, it cut a deal
with Verizon Communications Inc.'s AOL, for example, to have
Verizon take over its display advertising business.
Like many American tech giants, Microsoft has tried to do
business with the giant Chinese market, hungry for the latest
technology, while working with a government that questioned its
motives. In January, Chinese officials asked Microsoft to explain
"major problems" in data it provided as part of an antitrust
investigation of the company. That probe, which began in 2014, came
as some foreign companies had grown concerned about Chinese
officials using the 2008 antimonopoly law against them.
Microsoft is hardly the only tech company to wrestle with
Chinese authorities. In 2010, Google Inc., which now operates under
parent Alphabet Inc., curtailed much of its Chinese operations
following cyberattacks against Gmail users and disagreements with
the government over censorship. Last year, chip maker Qualcomm Inc.
agreed to pay $975 million to settle government claims that it
violated the new antimonopoly law.
Microsoft's move comes amid a broad Chinese crackdown on Western
tech and media firms. In the past month, the government has shut
down Apple Inc.'s online book and movie services in China and
effectively suspended a partnership between Walt Disney Co. and
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. that was intended to bring Disney
characters to Chinese screens.
While Microsoft is pulling back from the consumer Web in China,
the company has been aggressively expanding its cloud computing
offerings in the country. Microsoft operates massive data centers
in Beijing and Shanghai to provide Web-based, on-demand computing
services and data storage for corporate customers.
Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 09, 2016 17:42 ET (21:42 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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