Microsoft to Close MSN China Website June 7, 2016

[engine]

Microsoft is closing its MSN China portal from June 7, 2016.

After that date, users will still get a Bing search bar, and a list of other Chinese websites.

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. Microsoft to Close MSN China Website June 7, 2016 [wsj.com]

[Marshall]

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.

Sounds like motivation for this action. Frankly, I do not see how any company, big or small, can fairly do business with/in China. I have some clients that do business in China, and the stories they have told me...

[engine]

I know people that have done a great deal of business in China, and successfully, too. It's an entirely different culture, for sure.

I'm sure that Microsoft is hoping to get Windows 10 on the PCs in China. No doubt that Windows 10 cannot be copied in the way that earlier OS could be replicated. I'm not sure why doesn't become the most common OS in China. Perhaps it will.

As to MSN portal closing, it probably costs money and resources to maintain, and that might also be a reason to shut it down.