Yahoo Korea said Friday that it will shut down its business in the country and its local internat portal by the year end.

The Korean unit of the U.S.-headquartered Yahoo has been competing with local rivals NHN and Daum.

Yahoo said the company has faced several challenges in the past couple of years and decided to pull out of the Korean business to put more resources on the global business and become more powerful and successful.

The shutdown decision is part of Yahoo's global restructuring efforts.

Yahoo's website receives more than 700 million monthly visitors who use products like its email service and news pages.