Yahoo has announced that it is shutting down Yahoo Groups on December 15 following a decline in its usage.
However, the reasons for the reduced use of its services may be related to the fact that it failed to evolve and meet up with the offerings of its competitors.
The Yahoo group was launched in 2001. This year makes it 19 years since the service was launched.
The Group was quite prominent in the early 2000s, and it also enjoyed massive usage.
Sadly, the company could no longer compete with other market players like Google Groups, Facebook Groups, and Reddit.
In 2017, Verizon bought up Yahoo for $4.48billion.
Today, three years down the line, the company has announced that it will be shutting down its operations entirely on the 15th of December, 2020.
A pop-up box on Yahoo’s website notifies users of the imminent shutdown.
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The wipe-out
There have been previous instances where the Group had announced what looked like a wipe-out.
Last year, Yahoo announced that it was going to wipe off all content posted on Yahoo Groups.
The contents were scheduled for clearing on December 14, 2019. However, Yahoo rescheduled “trash day” to January 31, 2020.
On February 1, 2020, Yahoo withdrew access to some of its functions from users.
But today, it has started pulling the curtain on the entire Group.
The creation of new groups was disabled today, which means that only pre-existing users will use the service before the stipulated date of dissolution.
What will happen to Yahoo mails?
This is one of the most anticipated questions. Many internet users still have Yahoo! as their email host.
We expect that these users will want to know what happens with their mails after Yahoo phases out.
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The Group was thoughtful enough to give answers to this question alongside others.
There’s a list of predicted questions with provided explanations on the Yahoo help page.
If you’re wondering if this dissolution will affect your account, Yahoo says it won’t.
According to Yahoo, the only dissolved function is the Yahoo Groups. i.e., www.Groups.yahoo.com.
However, users should also note that Yahoo will not deliver emails sent from Yahoo Groups.
But, Yahoo will still support emails sent from private yahoo accounts.
In a message posted on the website, the company said:
“While these decisions are never easy, we must sometimes make difficult decisions regarding products that no longer fit our long-term strategy as we hone our focus on other areas of the business.”
Although it seems like an exit or –better still – an overhauling was long overdue, it’s sad to watch the company leave the scene.
What do you think about Yahoo’s cessation?
We’d like to know your view on the subject. Drop a comment via the comment box below.
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