Chinese pro-liberal news site has closed its website and app in Hong Kong due to internal news business adjustments after operating it for 23 years.
The Chinese portal, Duowei News said, "Starting from April 26, 2022, Hong Kong time, due to internal news business adjustments, the website and APP will bid farewell to readers".
According to the non-mainstream Hong Kong media, the portal recently issued an internal announcement to its employees, stating, "The adjustments in the real estate industry in the past two years and the continuation of the pandemic have had a significant impact on the group's business activities. Since 2020, many industrial chains of the group have been significantly affected. As a result, the group's business has had a sharp decline, and the company is in a state of continuous business contraction and a shortage of funds".
" Duowei News " is part of the parent company "Nanhai Holding Group" and is chaired by Yu Pinhai, who is the founder of the "Hong Kong 01" news portal. On December 31, 2020, the parent company lost around 2.53 billion Hong Kong Dollars. It is expected to witness an annual loss of about 3 billion to 3.4 billion Hong Kong dollars in 2021, the financial year.
The Chinese news site was founded way back in 1999 by He Pin, a Chinese overseas pro-democracy activist. It was originally headquartered in New York, but after it was acquired by Hong Kong businessman Yu Pinhai in 2009, the editorial policy changed drastically, and the editorial department was moved to Beijing. With the new policy, the website became less critical of the Chinese government and stopped giving space for pro-democracy activists to write on its website. But it continued to talk about factional feuds inside the CPC (Chinese Communist Party).
( With inputs from ANI )
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