Yahoo Pulls Out of China 79
judgecorp writes "Yahoo has closed its news and community services in China, having already closed its email services there. A farewell message on Yahoo's Chinese site doesn't say much, but it seems Yahoo is ceding the territory to Chinese firm Alibaba, in whom it has a stake."
And this is a surprise? (Score:5, Interesting)
When I read this story I found myself reacting with a great yawn. China is a very difficult place for an American Internet firm to do business because of the virulent corruption throughout its government and economy in general and the nonexistent rule of law, a court system that is not independent of the government in other words. Incidentally, these facts as well as some others will eventually lead to the collapse of China's economy.
Re:warning about Alibaba and Aliexpress (Score:2, Interesting)
Because his is a con-man, a thief, pimp, and a liar. As the story goes, he eavesdrops on a group of men in the woods, he has no doubt done this before. As he keep listening, he learns they are thieves and that the men actually stole a vast quantity of riches from all over the land and that they store it in a cave, the mouth of which is guarded by magic. He hears the magic words to open and close the cave and remembers them. After the thieves leave, he decides to steal from them. With only blackness in his heart, rather than return the stolen goods, he decides to keep it for himself. His sister-in-law finds out about his newly stolen hoard of gold coins and knows instinctively something is wrong. How can a woodcutter earn enough in his lifetime for 1 gold coin much less a hoard? Silver maybe from his whores, but gold? He must be stealing! She tells her husband. Alibaba's brother can't believe his brother is a no-good thief. After a little arm twisting, he learns it is true and Alibaba is forced to reveal where he got the coins from. His brother is determined to have the stolen goods returned to their rightful owners. Alibaba wants the gold to himself, so he tricks his brother into entering the cave without telling him the way to get out. This was a perfect time to set his brother up to take the fall and to see if anyone else knows about him. Waiting patiently, pretending nothing was amiss, he waited at home. After a week he knew his brother must be dead from starvation and thirst. This would be no problem but his sister-in-law knew her husband was last seen with him and he didn't want to be implicated in the crime. So he tried to retrieve the body. But it was too heavy! He had to cut off his arms and legs just to get him back to town which took a total of 5 trips. Alibaba is in deep doo-doo now. He forces one of his call girls to help cover up the crime. Do it or you'll end up just like my brother! Morgiana had already been beaten within an inch of her life before. She knew Alibaba had killed many times before, she had no way out, so she went along with the charade. She was instructed to find Baba Mustafa aka "the Cleaner" to help cover up the crime. He cleans Alibaba's home of all evidence of the crime and even sews up the body again so it is whole. Alibaba then pays off the state medical examiner with some of the stolen coins to say he died of natural causes. After the funeral nothing seems to be amiss, everything has been neatly accounted for. ... Join us next time for part 2 of the "The Purloined Pyramid of Plunder"
Seriously he burglarizes the thieves locked cave, knows he is dealing with stolen goods, aids in the commission of a murder(did he really tell his brother the way out?), covers up a murder, uses one of his kidnap victims to help cover up the murder, fabricates evidence, extorts an old man into helping cover up the murder, and is complicit in 39 more murders.
Yet we are to believe he is an "honest man" with fortune on his side.