Report: Qihoo 360 Instructs Employees to Use Line, Forbids Work Talk on Other Chat Apps

According to reports in the Chinese press, Chinese web security giant Qihoo 360 has distributed an internal memo to employees directing them to use Line and forbidding any work-related discussion on any other chat apps. Insiders said the move was aimed at encouraging employees to support the company’s own products (although it didn’t produce Line, Qihoo has invested in the app and is its operator in China), and that the company was not asking anyone to give up WeChat so long as they don’t use it to discuss work.

We’ve contacted Qihoo for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

Although it makes sense to encourage employees to use your own products, the move is sure to be interpreted by some as a reaction to Tencent’s move into mobile security in the latest version of WeChat. Certainly, there’s no love lost between the two companies. But to be fair, it’s also becoming increasingly common for Chinese internet companies to mandate employees use their own products both for promotional purposes and because of the growing distrust between them as they increasingly find themselves competing over the same markets. In fact, Alibaba just did the same thing last week.

Is a big battle coming to China’s internet this summer? I’ve already said that I think so, and I expect that we’ll see quite a bit more drama from Qihoo and Tencent before the leaves change this fall.

(via TechWeb)