No joy for Yahoo China as e-mail service to close

Decision leaves company with only web portal business in local market

Yahoo China announced on Thursday it will shut down its e-mail service by Aug 19, another sign of the brand's shrinking presence in the Chinese market.

The company, part of Internet giant Yahoo, has been run by China's e-commerce leader Alibaba since 2005 after the two firms shook hands on a $1 billion deal that saw Yahoo given 40 percent of then little-known Alibaba's stock.