YAHOO China said today it is terminating its email services in China, with all email accounts and user content deleted after August 19.

Yahoo China's email users - whose email accounts end with the .com.cn or .cn suffix - will have to connect their account to a new Aliyun account, or another third-party email service provider, to transfer their Yahoo emails.

Other Yahoo services will remain unchanged, according to an official statement from the company today.

Web users expressed disappointment with one of the most widely-used email service pulling out of China.

Many of its subscribers have been using the service for more than 10 years.

"I use this Yahoo email account for registration at many other websites and it will be a lot of trouble to transfer and set up a new email account," said Lisa Lu, an office worker in her late 20s.

"There are so many files and contacts in my Yahoo mail," wrote one microblog user with the username Shia Li.

"Isn't it irresponsible for such a big company as Yahoo to make this decision?!"

Alibaba is reportedly in talks with Yahoo Inc to hand back the operation of the US companies' Chinese businesses, but refused to comment yesterday.

Yahoo China was transferred to Alibaba Group in 2005, after the US Internet company invested US$1 billion to get 46 percent of the Chinese e-commerce giant.

Alibaba has put less attention to the operation of Yahoo China's businesses as its main focus has been on e-commerce operations.