China’s online travel industry is embroiled in several different battles between companies at the moment, but that’s not the only war in progress in China’s tech industry. The streaming video sector is also heating up, and according to Techweb on Monday a dispute between iQiyi and LeTV finally went big time when the former sued the latter for unfair competitive practices.
The beef between the two companies centers on a LeTV product called iFacetv, a downloadable browser designed for Android-based smart TVs and mobile devices. iQiyi says that the browser automatically blocks advertisements on iQiyi’s site, cutting into its revenues and therefore constituting an unfair business practice. The company is also complaining that by allowing viewers to watch iQiyi videos without visiting iQiyi’s site, LeTV is benefiting from the iQiyi-owned content without paying to license or acquire it in any way. iQiyi wants LeTV to fix the issue immediately and pay RMB 1 million (US$162,000) in compensation.
A Beijing Haidian district court has accepted the case, but it could be quite a while before the matter is resolved. A similar dispute between Tencent and Qihoo 360 that occurred in 2010 wasn’t resolved until October of this year, thanks to a series of appeals. The court may also be inclined to take its time on this, as whatever ruling it makes could likely also be applied to many other video-streaming apps and sites, and could ultimately have a significant impact on the market.
See: Online travel wars: China’s Tuniu takes a shot at LY.com
(Source: Techweb)
Photo by Brian Turner
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