WeChat Looks to Take on Qihoo as New Security Feature Comes to V5.0

Last week we wrote about some of the new features rumored to be coming to version 5.0 of WeChat, but the National Business Daily is now reporting on one feature we hadn’t previously heard of: WeChat Bodyguard. Bodyguard, which was confirmed in an interview with Tencent vice-director Ding He on Wednesday, will protect WeChat and its mobile payment feature from hacking and malware.

Needless to say, this is being interpreted by many as a first jab at mobile security incumbent Qihoo 360, which currently dominates China’s web and mobile security markets. Tencent CEO Pony Ma has reportedly said internally that Tencent must put all its effort into winning the mobile browser and mobile security market, and that puts Qihoo directly in its path.

Of course, the two companies also have a fairly adversarial history. Recently, Qihoo lost a couple of major lawsuits to Tencent, and lost another one a couple years ago. But all that animosity originally dates back to the so-called 3Q war, a dispute that erupted into a major PR flame war after Tencent bundled a bit of security software with its messaging service QQ back in 2010.

So are we on the verge of another 3Q war in the mobile space? There’s no way to be sure, but with Tencent once again bundling security software with a popular chat product, and Qihoo likely still smarting from its recent spankings in court, there are plenty of reasons to believe we could see some sparks fly here, so stay tuned!

(China Business News via TechWeb)