Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that! Qihoo 360 may not be a name that you might be familiar with, but the company is one of the bigger ones when it comes to computing security.
With a billion active internet users, it is a leading provider of security solutions in China and has been a dominant force in the country for quite some time now.
In fact, the company believes their success is something that even Microsoft is imitating.
Zhou Hongyi, the co-founder of the Chinese internet security firm Qihoo 360 Technology, made some interesting remarks at the 10th Internet Security Conference in late July. He told the audience that the software titan is copying the Qihoo 360 Safe Center and creating a Microsoft computer butler.
According to the report, Zhou explained that the Redmond-based company is looking at the solutions Qihoo creates to improve its own offerings:
“As a technology giant, Microsoft draws lessons from Qihoo 360’s security concept in the security field, which also proves that our security concept is relatively advanced and is on a correct path.
There are always peers misleading the public and the government, saying that C-end security companies can’t do enterprise-oriented business, and the data is useless. This is complete jealousy of us. Security companies that only do enterprise-oriented business can’t see it because they don’t have big data on the whole network.”
As you may have guessed, these comments were made as a compliment.
In a later post on Weibo, Zhou went on to explain that Microsoft is actually doing a terrific job when it comes to its focus on the C-end:
“I have to clarify that I am not bombarding Microsoft, but actually expressing my appreciation for the company. In the digital age, only companies from the C-end can do a good job of security because they have numerous users and can put big data into the cloud for security analysis. I think Qihoo 360 and Microsoft are both future-oriented companies.”
Microsoft-branded security software is hot these days, actually, with the company amping up its abilities every chance it gets. It even recently made its programs available for individual users who are ready to move away from third-party solutions.
Microsoft’s experience and intelligence in this space are helping its security software succeed not only on Windows but also on devices powered by competing platforms.
Now, whether this success is cooked by inspiration from somewhere else remains a talking point.