The Chinese government is investigating Tencent, the world’s third-largest internet company by market capitalisation, and Qihoo 360, a local rival, over their competition practices.
The move by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology late on Sunday indicates that a recent high-profile spat between the two companies has prompted Beijing to enforce more actively fair competition in the world’s largest internet market by users.
The dispute between Tencent and Qihoo 360 started in September, when Qihoo 360, the company behind China’s leading antivirus software, accused QQ, the instant messaging tool that forms Tencent’s customer base with more than 600m active accounts, of scanning customers’ computers for private data.