The first stage
In 2010, Tencent launched the QQ Doctor 1.0 Beta version, which for a long time was only used as a small tool to detect and kill account-stealing Trojans. Subsequently, QQ Doctor 3.2 was launched, with an interface and functions similar to those of 360. It also announced a free half-year trial of Norton anti-virus software. Later, QQ Doctor used the Spring Festival period to forcefully promote the product.
Sensitive 360 ??quickly realized the threat from QQ Doctors, and some employees who were on vacation were urgently recalled to deal with the emergency. 360’s rapid response, coupled with the fact that QQ Doctor’s own products were immature and rushed into battle, many users uninstalled QQ Doctor one after another, and its market share quickly dropped to less than 10. 360 became the winner of this confrontation.
Second Phase On May 31, 2010, Tencent quietly upgraded QQ Doctor to version 4.0 and renamed it "QQ Computer Manager". The new version of the software combines QQ Doctor and QQ software management into one, adds functions such as cloud Trojan killing and plug-in cleaning, and covers all the mainstream functions of 360 Security Guard. The user experience is very similar to 360. Tencent’s move caught 360 and Kingsoft off guard. .
Zhou Hongyi posted more than 40 messages on Weibo, exposing the years of grievances between 360 and Kingsoft, and Kingsoft immediately responded strongly. The two companies subsequently sued each other, and the war of words and lawsuits continued. At this moment, Tencent’s move caught 360 off guard. In an exclusive interview, Zhou Hongyi suggested that Tencent should increase investment in solving QQ’s internal security issues.
In the third phase, during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2010, "QQ Software Management" and "QQ Doctor" were automatically upgraded to "QQ Computer Manager", covering cloud Trojan killing, system vulnerability patching, security protection, and system Maintenance and software management functions, which are also the mainstream functions of 360 Security Guard. With QQ’s huge user base, QQ Computer Manager will directly threaten 360’s survival position in the security field.
On September 22, 2010, netizens reported one after another that the "QQ Computer Manager" icon suddenly appeared on their desktops, and that it would automatically start when turning on the computer. This is the second large-scale forced installation of QQ Doctor after the mandatory installation of QQ Doctor during the Spring Festival in 2010. With QQ’s huge user base, QQ Computer Manager will directly threaten 360’s survival position in the security field.
On September 27, 2010, 360 released a "Privacy Protector" tool directly targeting QQ, claiming that it could monitor the behavior of exposing QQ in real time and prompt users that "a certain chat software" was using the software without the user's permission. peek into users’ personal private files and data. It caused worries and panic among netizens about the QQ client.
The fourth phase: On October 14, 2010, in response to the 360 ??Privacy Protector's exposure of QQ peeping into user privacy, Tencent officially announced a lawsuit against 360 for unfair competition, requiring Qihoo and its affiliates to stop infringement and publicly apologize. and make compensation. The court has accepted the case.
In response to Tencent’s lawsuit, 360 immediately responded with three points, stating that it would file a countersuit. In its response, 360 stated that "people from all walks of life have raised doubts about Tencent. Tencent has always avoided prying into user privacy. At this time, suing 360, in addition to retaliation, cannot rule out that it is to divert attention and avoid outside doubts."
The fifth stage On October 27, 2010, Tencent published the "Joint Statement on Opposing Unfair Competition in 360 and Strengthening Industry Self-discipline". The statement was jointly issued by Tencent, Kingsoft, Baidu, Maxthon, Keniu and other companies. The competent authorities are required to resolutely stop 360’s unfair commercial competition and conduct a thorough investigation into 360’s malicious intimidation and deception of users.
On October 29, 2010, 360 launched a security tool called 360 KouKou Bodyguard. 360 said that this tool comprehensively protects the security of QQ users, including preventing QQ from viewing user private files, preventing Trojans from stealing QQ, accelerating QQ, and filtering advertisements. The number of downloads exceeded 20 million within 72 hours, and continues to increase rapidly. Tencent made a strong statement on this, saying that 360 KouKou Bodyguard was a "plug-in" behavior.
In the sixth phase, at 6 pm on November 3, 2010, Tencent announced in an open letter that it would stop running QQ software on computers with 360 software installed, and advocated that 360 software must be uninstalled before you can log in to QQ. This is In a series of disputes between 360 and Tencent, Tencent has taken the most drastic action so far. This move caused shock in the industry and anger among netizens. The industry believed that Tencent’s move was to force users to make a choice between two options. According to 360 CEO Zhou Hongyi, the number of 360 software users who were forced to uninstall reached 60 million.
At around 9:00 pm on November 3, 2010, 360 issued a response "to ensure that 360 and QQ run at the same time." Subsequently, 360's "KouKou Bodyguard" software was quietly offline on its official website, 4 On the same day, 360 issued an open letter stating that it was willing to put aside the controversy and let the network regain calm. 360 KouKou Bodyguard was officially offline. With the strong intervention of relevant national departments, QQ has begun to regain compatibility with 360. On the morning of November 4, 2010, 360 issued a pop-up announcement announcing the recall of KouKou Bodyguard, asking users to uninstall it. The move appears to be a sign of reconciliation.
Stage 7 Vice President Liu Jun confirmed that the Communications Security Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Public Security have intervened in the matter, and on the 4th they approached two companies for inquiries.
On the morning of November 5, 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Internet Society and other departments met to discuss the response plan to this matter. Government departments have intervened and issued administrative orders to require the two parties to end the dispute. According to insiders, 360 also announced the recall of the "KouKou Bodyguard" software under this situation. Both companies are prohibited from publishing news and messages that incite this incident.
The eighth stage Qihoo 360 announced on November 10, 2010 that QQ and 360 have resumed compatibility, and published on the official website titled "QQ and 360 have resumed compatibility. Thank you!" 》Announcement, thanked the majority of users for their support of 360 software, announced the contact information of relevant departments, and reminded users to report to the relevant departments if they find conflicts between the two softwares.
Tencent issued an apology letter titled "With You" on November 21, 2010. The conflict between the two parties was officially resolved with the intervention of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Phase 9 On the afternoon of November 11, 2010, Sina and MSN China held a press conference to jointly announce that Sina and MSN China completed the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement and formally reached a strategic partnership. According to the cooperation agreement, Sina and MSN will carry out all-round strategic cooperation in many areas, covering Weibo, blogs, instant messaging, information content, wireless and other aspects. For Tencent
If you install 360, don’t even think about using QQ
“This battle will continue. We firmly believe that we will win the support of users and win this battle.” ——Tencent Ma Huateng, chairman of the company’s board of directors.
According to the open letter issued by Tencent, the decision to change the service was made because of the security issues of QQ accounts. Tencent stated that 360 forced the promotion of the plug-in QQ Bodyguard, and this software changed the security of QQ. module, causing QQ to lose related functions. Tencent believes that Tencent cannot guarantee the security of QQ accounts in the operating environment of 360 software. Therefore, Tencent finally decided that before 360 ??stops promoting QQ Bodyguard, users will not be able to use QQ if they need to run 360 software. This decision quickly shocked netizens. On the evening of November 3, 2010, Sina Weibo was almost flooded with this news and related comments.
However, the reporter found that as of 9:00 on November 3, 2010, 360 and QQ on the reporter's computer could still run together. As for when to implement the move to "stop running QQ software on computers with 360 software installed," Tencent said, "The action is currently underway.
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When the incident evolved at 11:30 pm on November 3, 2010, Tencent announced three settlement conditions regarding the dispute with 360:
1. 360 must complete the uninstallation of KouKouBodyguard and the privacy protector that maliciously slanders Tencent on all clients;
2. 360 immediately stops intercepting Tencent and other legitimate programs, and publicly promises not to intercept Tencent programs in the future. Publicly promise not to release any software that attacks Tencent products in the future, and publicly promise not to misappropriate any QQ user information in the future;
3. 360 publicly apologizes to Tencent and compensates for the losses. “We call on 360 to change its past and promise to provide compensation. Users can use QQ and other legal software in a safe and interference-free environment. "
As for 360
KouKou Bodyguard is temporarily offline
" Even if Tencent, the rampant hegemony, wants to overwhelm 360, 360 must let this Bullies pay the price, which is why Tencent must return the right to know and choose to its hundreds of millions of users. ——Zhou Hongyi, Chairman of Qihoo 360.
Faced with Tencent’s determination, 360 responded quickly, saying it would never give up and “will do its best to ensure that all Chinese netizens can be safe and secure.” Feel free to use 360 ??and QQ to chat at the same time." The approach taken by 360 is even more surprising. Zhou Hongyi, chairman of 360, said on Weibo that he had already planned for Tencent's statement and also launched WEBQQ client software to ensure smooth chat for users. In fact, this client is a "shell" for WEBQQ (QQ web chat version), and it still uses QQ services. It is equivalent to a QQ web chat fast channel produced by 360, and actively promotes the services of competitors. This This was unprecedented in China's Internet competition. However, this intimate initiative was rejected by Tencent within 20 minutes of the launch of the WEBQQ client. Tencent closed the WEBQQ website portal. Both .qq.com websites have jumped to "A letter from Tencent to the majority of QQ users. "It seems that Tencent is very resolute in its decision. As long as you use 360, you cannot use QQ and it is impossible to be compatible.
At about 9 o'clock in the evening on November 3, 2010, the reporter discovered that in On the homepage of 360 official website, the KouKou bodyguard that once annoyed Tencent quietly disappeared. I wonder if this means that 360 still hopes to reach a settlement with QQ. 360 explained that it suddenly discovered that there was a technical conflict with QQ, and it could not be ruled out that it was the QQ company. In order not to harm user experience and interests, we decided to temporarily offline 360.com at 9:30 last night. 360 called on users to deactivate QQ for three days and take action to resist Tencent QQ’s threats to users.
Prosecution and counterclaim
The "privacy war" between Tencent and 360 escalated to the court. On the evening of October 14, 2010, Tencent announced that it had formally sued 360 for unfair competition and demanded Qi Qi. Hu and its affiliates stopped the infringement, publicly apologized and made compensation. The court has accepted the case and responded, saying that the "Privacy Gate" incident began when 360 launched "360 Privacy Protection" in September 2011. 360 claimed that QQ had various behaviors of peeping into user privacy. Tencent responded in a low-key manner that day to its misunderstanding of Tencent QQ's security functions. On October 11, 2010, 360 released the "User Privacy Protection White Paper", once again It was suggested that Tencent's QQ software was "not safe enough." That night, Tencent issued an official statement, severely refuting 360's accusations, and announced that it would take legal measures to protect its rights.