Qihoo 360’s CEO Zhou Hongyi: Startups Should Build to Disrupt

The outspoken Qihoo 360 (NYSE:QIHU) CEO, Zhou Hongyi, has been taking part in a panel at the China Internet Conference here in Beijing this afternoon. While there are other speakers at the panel, all eyes were on him. Zhou, from time to time, has been quite an ass, fighting with different leaders in the Chinese internet industry. Nonetheless, I do have respect for Zhou for the things he has achieved as an entrepreneur. His words still bring some weight, which is evident as people clap enthusiastically whenever he speaks.

The recent search war is Zhou’s most recent battle with a giant (Baidu). The moderator asked why Zhou is always constantly fighting battles with the giants, be it with words or actual products. Zhou was calm and took the question pretty well, I thought. He first established that Qihoo 360 operates in a very startup-ish manner. And he believes that a startup should be built to disrupt. So if Qihoo 360 wants to be in the game, it has to continue to disrupt and that means taking market share from big players at times. And disruption, like it or not, will somehow piss people off. Zhou said:

I urge entrepreneurs to think different from big companies. It is unlikely that you will be successful if you follow the big companies because they are big and they set the rules of game. If they didn’t do a better job in UX, do it, if they haven’t exploit a new space, do it [Note: Translations are mine].

The moderator also said that Qihoo 360 is one of the companies which budding entrepreneurs look up to nowadays. But Zhou humbly denied that and said that they are small compared to others. He claimed that Qihoo 360 is often bullied by other big companies and thus they have to disrupt to stay afloat.

For entrepreneurs who are not in China, you may want to take it with a grain of salt. Zhou is obviously talking about starting up in China where competition at the high level is very harsh. But the general spirit is right, I think. Disruption is important. If not doing that, why bother building a startup?

Also catch:

• Pony Ma’s speech at the China Internet Conference

• Inside Life at Qihoo 360: Exclusive insights from a former employee