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
Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
