In July 2013, I was still in China preparing for my brand new university life in Vancouver. One day, I checked my Yahoo mail to see if there were any messages I missed from UBC. Surprisingly, I found there is few sentences said, “Please transfer your important e-mails to Alibaba’s Alimail and connect to its Aliyun mail service to receive e-mails till the end of 2014. The Yahoo China mail service is going to close soon.” Until that day, I suddenly realized that so-called “lifelong mail service” finally move towards an unpleasant end.
Recall to the ”lifelong mail service” first launched by Yahoo China in 2007, it seems more likely “a joke” since the lifelong service commitment only lasted for six years. I could still remember that day when I spent more than five hours searching information about Yahoo China mail service. The report showed that the shutdown of Yahoo China is not really a big surprise as it stopped its Chinese music, album and blog service gradually before the final closure in August 2013.
Many people complain because they used Yahoo China mail as their log in name signing up for a large number of websites. They have to change all of their user names and transfer their data to another mail service due to the shutdown of Yahoo China.
What make me reflect is why free services last for such a short time and then end its life easily? Nothing would come for free. That is the truth.
Resources:
1) http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/18/yahoo-shuts-down-its-email-service-in-china/
2) http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2423280,00.asp
3) http://cqrbepaper.cqnews.net/cqrb/html/2013-08/20/content_1668603.htm
4) http://www.tmtpost.com/57520.html (pictures)
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