UC Web CEO Yu Yong-fu at the Beijing press conference. (Image source: TechWeb)
According to a report from Marbridge Consulting, UC Web, the Chinese mobile browser company with Lei Jun as one of its co-founders, today said that it was bringing a lawsuit against internet giant Tencent (HKG:0700) for unfair competition.
At a press conference in Beijing, it showed a partnership agreement where Tencent stipulated that handset makers “not promote products made by rival companies including UC Mobile,” as well as Qihoo 360, and Sina.
The friction between the two companies goes back to claims from Tencent that its QQ mobile browser was the market leader, which UC Mobile says was a fabrication. In addition, the company’s CEO Yu Yongfu (pictured above) alleges that the QQ browser interface is over ‘90 percent identical’ to theirs.
On a related note, UC Mobile just recently surpassed 20 million overseas users, showing that its more than just a domestic success. It uses its own rendering engine, rather than running on Gecko, Trident, or Webkit. Lei Jun also revealed that UC Web has over 100 million users and is growing quickly each month at the recent Disrupt Beijing event.
As for Tencent, it has often been accused of copying products from the ‘little guys’ and pushing them out of business. We recently heard the company’s CEO Pony Ma speak at Techcrunch Disrupt, where he shared his own thoughts and experiences on entrepreneurship in China.
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