Corporate China | WEIBO TALK: Alibaba, TCL chiefs reflect; Qihoo blasts Baidu
The final week of the year has seen two of China's top technology leaders looking inward, with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma and TCL (Shenzhen: 000100) chief Li Dongsheng both taking the occasion to reflect on some of the people and events that put them on their paths to success.
In one of his occasional posts since recently resuming microblogging, Ma reflects on an impressionable meal with a friend more than 20 years ago, when China was a far different place from now and he was a universe away from his current status as China's richest man. Meantime, Li reflected in a series of posts on the recent passing of his mother, and the huge influence she had on his life.
But the microblogging realm wasn't all quiet and reflective during the week, as Qihoo 360's (NYSE: QIHU) outspoken founder Zhou Hongyi embarked on a long-winded rant aimed squarely at Robin Li, founder and chairman of leading search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). In that instance Zhou unleashed his fury at Baidu's security software product, calling it invasive and intrusive. Regular readers will know that I find this particular accusation from Zhou quite ironic, since his own company is frequently accused of playing similar games with its own security software.
All that said, let's begin with Zhou's rant, since it's the most colorful online chatter of the past week in the microblogging realm. Zhou was never one to hide his feelings, and frequently posts his thoughts on a wide range of Internet rivals and their chief executives. He has butted heads with nearly every major Chinese Internet company in the past, including recent spats with social network giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Internet portal Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), just to name a few.
But Zhou's latest verbal attack on Baidu is even louder than usual, coming in 6 lengthy posts on his microblog over the past week. I'm not a user of either Qihoo's or Baidu's security software, as I personally don't trust such free products from Chinese companies. Qihoo was historically one of the worst culprits of opaque business practices, including using its free security software to load unwanted products onto users' computers and cellphones, and steer them to its free Internet browser.
