Applications
Yahoo shuts South Korea operations to focus on global biz
MUMBAI: Digital media company Yahoo! has said it will close its South Korean operations at the end of this year to concentrate on its global business where it is pitted against powerful rivals like Google and Facebook.
South Korea is the first Asian country where Yahoo! is exiting as part of its global restructuring exercise.
“Yahoo has faced several challenges in the past couple of years and decided to pull out of the (Korean) business to put more resources on global business and become more powerful and successful,” Yahoo said in a statement.
Yahoo! Korea, a Yahoo! subsidiary, has not been able to beat local rivals such as NHN, Daum Communications Corp and SK Communications. Local companies have a strong brand loyalty which makes South Korea a difficult market for foreign cos to operate in.
Headquartered in Gangnam district of Seoul, Yahoo! Korea started business in 1997 with 200-250 employees on its roster currently. The company will terminate Korean online portal services in December. Its Korean website will be automatically linked to an English website from early next year.
“Since 1997, the Yahoo! Korean team has provided high-quality editorial content and services, and has built a successful search advertising network. But despite this, the operation has faced growing challenges over the past few years that now make scaling Yahoo‘s business very difficult,” the statement added.
On Monday, Yahoo had announced that Google executive Henrique de Castro was joining the company as its chief operating officer beginning next year. Last month, Yahoo had appointed Ken Goldman as its chief financial officer, effective 22 October. Goldman replaces Tim Morse, who will be leaving Yahoo during the fall.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
