Yahoo is shutting down its research and development centre in Beijing - the firm 's only physical presence in the country . The company confirmed the plans on Wednesday and the move is expected to affect between 200 and 300 employees . Yahoo said in a statement that it is 'consolidating certain functions into fewer offices ' and is 'constantly making changes to realign resources . ' Yahoo is pulling the plug on its research and development centre in Haidan , Beijing - the firm 's only physical presence in the country . The California-based company confirmed the plans on Wednesday and the move is expected to affect between 200 and 300 employees . Employees were informed of the closures yesterday . According to reports in Bloomberg , this is said to be around two per cent of its global workforce and follows editorial job cuts in Canada earlier this month . It has also recently closed offices in Amman and Jordan . Yahoo was once the leading search engine but has lost ground to Google and more recently Microsoft 's Bing . Mozilla announced in December it was ending its partnership with Google as the default option for Firefox web searches . At the start of the year it began switching people using the browser in the US to Yahoo . The decision to switch to Yahoo came as a decade-long agreement with Google neared its end , and Mozilla 'evaluated its options ' , according to the firm . The partnership with Yahoo is set to last five years . A total of more than 100 billion online searches are done each year by people around the world using Firefox browsers and this is expected to increase Yahoo 's market share . As of last month Yahoo accounted for 12.8 per cent of search volume in the US . Google took 64.5 per cent and Bing had 19.8 per cent . This is complicated slightly by the fact Yahoo is powered by Bing . The firm is also said to have struggled as people moved from laptops and desktops to smartphones and tablets - although Yahoo Mail is still one of the leading providers in many regions . Yahoo 's profit for the quarter ending in December fell 52 per cent from a year earlier while revenue dipped 1 per cent . However , Mozilla announced in December it was ending its partnership with Google as the default option for Firefox web searches . People using the browser in the US are being switched to Yahoo . A total of more than 100 billion online searches are carried out each year using Firefox browsers and this is expected to increase Yahoo 's market share considerably . The research centre in the Haidian district was set up in 2009 to 'provide products and technologies in making the world ’ s daily habits inspiring and entertaining . ' It was used as an extension of the Sunnyvale-based company and engineers focused on studying search and advertising tools . The research centre was set up in 2009 to 'provide products and technologies in making the world ’ s daily habits inspiring and entertaining . ' It was used as an extension of the Sunnyvale-based company and engineers focused on studying search and advertising tools . It is not clear when the offices will close and its website has n't been updated yet . Yahoo sold its Chinese operations to Alibaba Group Holding in 2005 and stopped offering services in the region in 2013 . In January , Yahoo boss Marissa Meyer announced plans to spinoff off its Alibaba holdings , which are valued at more than $ 32 billion . The closure is not said to be linked with government concerns or controls .
Alibaba is closing its research and development centre in Beijing . The move is expected to affect between 200 and 300 employees . Centre is one of three global Alibaba research centres and opened in 2009 . Alibaba sold its Chinese operations to Yahoo Group in 2005 . Boss Marissa Meyer plans to spin off its Yahoo holdings valued at $ 32bn .