Worried About Tencent? Alibaba Internal Memo Bans All Third-Party Communication Software

Information security is important for any tech company. And the leadership at Alibaba, one of China’s biggest tech companies, has apparently come to the conclusion that as long as employees are using third-party communication software, Alibaba’s data is at risk.

In an internal memo leaked on TechWeb yesterday, Alibaba senior VP Shao Xiaofeng wrote that employees should not use any third party chat, social networking, or email software for work-related communication with coworkers, clients, or partners. Instead, employees have been instructed to use only Alibaba products so, for example, workers using QQ to IM with each other will need to stick to Alibaba’s Wangwang IM software instead from now on.

Shao doesn’t mention Tencent by name, but as the company operates China’s biggest IM and chat platforms, it is almost certainly a big target of Alibaba’s suspicions. And while the memo doesn’t make any specific accusations, it’s obvious from the language that the company takes the threat very seriously. (For example, the memo ends with “This must be implemented! […] The above decision goes into effect today!”)

I must say that this falls very neatly into a theory I outlined yesterday about the coming war between Baidu, Tencent, and Qihoo, in which I noted that Alibaba was a likely fourth party that might even team up with Qihoo. As I mentioned there, Alibaba has over the past year been moving into markets that put it into more direct competition with Baidu and Tencent, and this memo could certainly be interpreted as a sign that the Alibaba camp thinks the competition is about to heat up.

Of course, it could also just be a response to the generally-unsafe nature of communications on China’s internet. We contacted Alibaba to see if the company has any official comment, but all they’ll say is: “As a matter of policy we don’t comment on internal communications.”

(via TechWeb)