Yahoo to exit South Korea

Yahoo Inc said it would close its South Korean web portal and an internet advertising business, to cut losses in a market where it had been struggling for a decade. South Korea unit of Yahoo said today that its Seoul office with over 200 employees would be shut by the end of this year.

The decision comes after former Google executive Marissa Mayer took over at the struggling US internet company in July. The closure of the Korean arm, is part of efforts to "create a stronger global business by realigning resources," Yahoo Korea said in a statement.

Yahoo entered South Korea in 1997, and has since then operated a portal in Korean as also an internet advertising company, Overture Korea.

Yahoo's South Korean market share had shrunk to negligible in recent years as users flocked to Naver, Daum and other portals operated by South Korean internet firms.

Yahoo Korea also took a hit from the rapid adoption of smartphones and the mobile internet that made it more difficult to attract advertisers to web portals designed for desktop computers. Yahoo's problems increased with Overture Korea failing to renew key advertising deals.

Yahoo Inc has been struggling against competition from Google and Facebook, as it failed to increase its advertising revenues even as online marketing budgets of companies increased.