14 DAY TRIAL // China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) had to intervene and forcefully end a dispute between security software vendor Qihoo 360 and Internet media firm Tencent who were accusing each other of unfair business practices.
It all started back in September, when Qihoo 360 claimed that Tencent's QQ, the most popular instant messaging application in China, is leaking sensitive user data.
The security company, which currently provides anti-virus, anti-fraud and privacy protection software, altered its software to allegedly protect QQ users.
Tencent reacted by calling Qihoo's claims malicious slander and pushed a pop-up to QQ users advising them that the instant messaging service will be stopped for systems that continued to run the 360 Safe application.
The company claimed that Qihoo's program hijacks the QQ security module and interferes with the its ability to protect the accounts of its users.
According to estimates from Beinjing-based Analysys International, QQ currently represents over 75% of the instant messaging market in China.
Meanwhile, Qihoo claims some 300 million clients for its 360 security software. However, this figure might be exaggerated, giving that there are around 420 million Internet users in China in total and Qihoo is not the only provider of security software.
Tencent's notification likely caused a large number of QQ users to uninstall the security software from their computers and possibly remain unprotected.
Fortunately, until the QQ developer had a chance to go ahead with its plan and stop the service for users who refused to uninstall Qihoo 360 software, the government stepped in.
According to Marbridge Daily, the MIIT ordered both companies to immediately stop attacking each other, guarantee compatibility of their software and issue public apologies within five working days.
The ministry also said that it will investigate possible law violations from both companies and warned other IT companies to learn from this incident.
At the time of writing this article, both companies have published apologies on their respective websites and pledged to end the conflict.
If this situation was to be happen in a Western country, the case would most likely have been resolved in a court and not by government threats. Either way, its all hopefully in the users' best interests.