Qihoo Ready for New Tencent Battle, This Time With Group Messaging App

The only shot so far of Qihoo's upcoming 'KouXin' group messaging app.

Qihoo 360 looks set to renew its rivalry with Tencent by launching its own IM service and group messaging app, which will be called KouXin, which means ‘message’ in Chinese.

Qihoo (NYSE:QIHU) is looking to tackle Tencent in its prime stronghold – chat services – by launching KouXin to compete with QQ. The last time Qihoo and Tencent locked horns, the resulting battle made it into international media as the drama played out between Qihoo’s anti-virus software and QQ’s own IM app.

As for the new Qihoo app, all that the Chinese tech media has uncovered so far is the app’s name, its splash-screen (see above), and the fact that it’ll launch initially on iPhone, Android, and Symbian smartphones.

Qihoo’s KouXin app will be up against traditional IM platforms such as QQ, but more directly the new wave of group messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Xiaomi’s Miliao, and Tencent’s (yes, that name again!) Weixin, which recently updated with video messaging support. All these apps give users unlimited free text and maybe even voice/video messages via a GPRS or 3G connection.

Of course, Qihoo will be hard-pressed to bring down Tencent just with this – but it’s all part of Qihoo’s plan to create a wide-spread and trusted suite of free apps that bring in users to its other app and web products. Chief among these are its anti-virus software (for PCs and various mobile OSes) and its Windows web browser, dubbed 360, which is pretty popular in China.

[Source: Hexun Tech news – article in Chinese]