Louise Bernard with Alexis Patri 10:48 am, November 3, 2021, modified at 10:51 am, November 3, 2021
The new digital laws put in place by Beijing are pushing more and more digital giants to abandon their establishment in China.
After the professional social network LinkedIn, it is the turn of the web services company Yahoo and the video game Fortnite to announce that they are leaving the country.
Two more digital giants leaving China.
After the professional social network LinkedIn last month, Yahoo in turn announced to leave the country.
The Chinese market for the American search engine is over.
He had been there since 1999, but now prefers to throw in the towel.
Blame it on an "increasingly difficult business and legal environment," according to the Yahoo spokesperson.
And the very popular online video game Fortnite is embarking on the same process.
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Chinese players will no longer be able to log into Fortnite starting November 15.
The game is no longer accepting new users in the country.
These joint departures come in a context where China is tightening the screw even more on the digital level, with a very restrictive personal data protection law on the Internet, even for American companies.
Too many constraints for Fortnite
For video games, China has implemented new rules since this summer which notably prohibit minors from playing during the week.
They can also only play three hours per weekend.
For Fortnite, the economic model no longer holds.
The game is free, but is financed through microtransactions: payments within the game such as outfits for the characters for example.
However, these microtransactions are no longer authorized in China.
No profit and very restrictive rules: Fortnite's decision is therefore not surprising.