DIS Walt Disney Co

Microsoft Corp. is shutting down its Chinese Web portal next month as the company shifts its focus from providing online content to offering software and services for Windows 10 devices.

The software giant, which is under investigation by Chinese antitrust authorities, said it plans to continue to invest in other business in the country as well as maintaining its research and development operations there.

"Microsoft is deeply committed to China, offering a range of products including Windows 10, cloud services, and hosting the largest research and development center outside of the U.S.," said a Microsoft spokeswoman.

Microsoft posted a notification on its MSN China website Monday saying the portal, which delivers Web search services as well as news and lifestyle information, will cease on June 7. After that date, visitors to cn.msn.com will see a directory page of Chinese websites along with a Bing search bar.

The company in September struck a deal with Chinese search giant Baidu Inc. to make Baidu.com the default search engine and home page in China for users of Microsoft's Edge browser. That deal was part of Microsoft's effort to boost Windows 10 use in China, where pirated versions of Windows are widely used. Baidu agreed as part of the agreement to make it easier for its customers to update to Windows 10.

The deal also helped Microsoft shift away from managing display advertising, which is at the core of MSN. Last June, it cut a deal with Verizon Communications Inc.'s AOL, for example, to have Verizon take over its display advertising business.

Like many American tech giants, Microsoft has tried to do business with the giant Chinese market, hungry for the latest technology, while working with a government that questioned its motives. In January, Chinese officials asked Microsoft to explain "major problems" in data it provided as part of an antitrust investigation of the company. That probe, which began in 2014, came as some foreign companies had grown concerned about Chinese officials using the 2008 antimonopoly law against them.

Microsoft is hardly the only tech company to wrestle with Chinese authorities. In 2010, Google Inc., which now operates under parent Alphabet Inc., curtailed much of its Chinese operations following cyberattacks against Gmail users and disagreements with the government over censorship. Last year, chip maker Qualcomm Inc. agreed to pay $975 million to settle government claims that it violated the new antimonopoly law.

Microsoft's move comes amid a broad Chinese crackdown on Western tech and media firms. In the past month, the government has shut down Apple Inc.'s online book and movie services in China and effectively suspended a partnership between Walt Disney Co. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. that was intended to bring Disney characters to Chinese screens.

While Microsoft is pulling back from the consumer Web in China, the company has been aggressively expanding its cloud computing offerings in the country. Microsoft operates massive data centers in Beijing and Shanghai to provide Web-based, on-demand computing services and data storage for corporate customers.

Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 09, 2016 17:55 ET (21:55 GMT)

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