Tencent CEO: Government Orders QQ, Qihoo 360 Ceasefire
Information Times, 11/09/10
Amidst the furor surrounding Tencent (0700.HK) and anti-virus software maker Qihoo 360's battle over users' computers, Tencent chairman and CEO Pony Ma said today that Tencent's hand had been forced. Ma said that governmental authorities had involved themselves in the fight and sent an official order to the companies to cease their fighting.
Ma said that Qihoo 360's "360 Koukou Guard" software came with a function that removed Tencent advertising and prevented upgrades of the company's QQ client software, replaced the software's security module, and led users to create copies of their contact lists under the pretense of making backup copies. "On the afternoon of November 3," Ma said, "we found that the software was spreading more rapidly, and that 20 mln users had been affected. Even though only 20 mln users had been hijacked, each QQ user has an average of 40 contacts listed, meaning that through those 20 mln users, Qihoo 360 could affect 800 mln users."
Ma confirmed that Qihoo 360 had issued a recall of Koukou Guard, but said the company hadn't acknowledged that the software was flawed. He added that Qihoo could still provide some of the functionality of Koukou Guard through an update to its 360 Safe Guard software.
Keywords: scandal Pony Ma Internet security software Tencent QQ 360 Safe Guard client software 0700.HK Qihoo 360 anti-virus
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