Microsoft is planning to shut down its MSN website in China in June, the company said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

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

The giant tech company stopped its instant messaging service in China in 2014.

A spokesperson has yet to respond to the reason behind the closure, according to CNN.

The tech company posted a notification on its Chinese website, saying the portal, which provides news and lifestyle content as well as a search function, 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 searchbar, the statement said.

Microsoft has been faced with competition with other local players, such as sina.com, which provides a twitter-like micro-blogging site Sina Weibo; and sohu.com, which runs a search engine in China: sogou.com.

While Microsoft is closing its website in China, the company has been actively expanding its cloud computing offerings in the country.

Microsoft is operating massive data centers in Beijing and Shanghai for the provision of web-based, on-demand computing services and data storage for corporate customers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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