Sogou hits back at Qihoo 360

The war between Sohu.com Inc's Sogou browser, a leading Chinese Internet browser, and anti-virus software Qihoo 360 escalated to a new level after Sogou on Thursday released a statement accusing Qihoo 360 of fabricating evidence to hurt its reputation.

Sogou, owned by Sohu.com Inc, said that Qihoo 360 "manipulated account IDs in online forums and used fake or zombie Weibo accounts and the media" to sabotage Sogou "in an insane manner."

Sogou and the browser developed by Qihoo 360 have been engaged in head-to-head competition in the Internet browser arena.

The latest data from CNZZ, a Beijing-based Internet market intelligence agency, showed that Baidu still led the domestic Web page search engine industry with a market share of 61.72 percent in October, while Qihoo 360 came in second with 21.39 percent, followed by Sogou and Soso holding a combined market share of 13.7 percent. Foreign browsers held a small market share, with Google leading this segment with 1.76 percent.

Sogou and Tencent's search business Soso announced a merger in September but have continued to operate independently so far.

While Sogou touts the high speed of its product, Qihoo 360 stresses the anti-virus features and private information protection as its browser's major advantages.

Qihoo 360, developed by Qihoo 360 Technology Co, released a half-hour video on a domestic online video platform youku.com Wednesday, showing how the passwords of online payment platforms such as Alipay and instant messaging services like QQ can be stolen using Sogou.

The video and Sogou's alleged security issue were widely reported by China's mainstream media outlets, including China Central Television Station and Xinhua News Agency.

This prompted Sogou to publish its statement, claiming that the video was edited in a suspicious manner and Qihoo 360 had hired a large number of Weibo zombies to publicize the "security issue," which the browser does not have.

A spokesperson of Qihoo 360 told the Global Times Thursday on the condition of anonymity that it was "impossible" for Weibo zombies to create such publicity, citing that several public security bureaus have reposted media reports questioning Sogou's security concerns.

"Sogou should be the one urging its users to change their passwords. But it did not even admit its existing security issue, and tried to cover up its problem by issuing this statement. We are shocked by the company's irresponsible reaction," the spokesperson said.

Qihoo 360's spokesperson dodged the question of whether the company indeed hired Weibo zombies and manipulated the -video-editing process, saying "that is unimportant."

Sogou could not be reached for comment as of press time.

Zhao Zhanling, a legal counsel with the Internet Society of China, told the Global Times Thursday that if the Qihoo 360's allegations about Sogou having a security loophole are true, Qihoo 360 will not be blamed no matter what kind of means it used to spread the word.

However, if the security loophole does not exist or Qihoo 360's claims are found to have been exaggerated, Sogou can sue Qihoo 360 of deliberately damaging its reputation.

"If Sogou wants to file a lawsuit, it has to prove that Qihoo 360 spread negative information and that Sogou suffered losses as a result," Zhao said.

It is not the first dispute between the two companies.

Sogou sued Qihoo 360 on September 25 over what it perceived as an unfair move by the latter in modifying users' computer settings to make Qihoo 360 their default browser. Qihoo 360 also sued Sogou on the same day for bonding its browser with its typing software in order to induce users to install the Sogou browser.