WEIBO TALK: Alibaba, TCL Chiefs Reflect; Qihoo Blasts Baidu

The final week of the year has seen 2 of China’s top technology leaders looking inward, with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma and TCL (Shenzhen: 000100) chief Li Dongsheng both taking the occasion to reflect on some of the people and events that put them on their paths to success. In one of his occasional posts since recently resuming microblogging, Ma reflects on an impressionable meal with a friend more than 20 years when China was a far different place from now and he was a universe away from his current status as China’s richest man. Meantime, Li reflected in a series of posts on the recent passing of his mother, and the huge influence she had on his life.

But the microblogging realm wasn’t all quiet and reflective during the week, as Qihoo 360’s (NYSE: QIHU) outspoken founder Zhou Hongyi embarked on a long-winded rant aimed squarely at Robin Li, founder and chairman of leading search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). In that instance Zhou unleashed his fury at Baidu’s security software product, calling it invasive and intrusive. Regular readers will know that I find this particular accusation from Zhou quite ironic, since his own company is frequently accused of playing similar games with its own security software.

All that said, let’s begin with Zhou’s rant, since it’s the most colorful online chatter of the past week in the microblogging realm. Zhou was never one to hide his feelings, and frequently posts his thoughts on a wide range of Internet rivals and their chief executives. He has butted heads with nearly every major Chinese Internet company in the past, including recent spats with social network giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Internet portal Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), just to name a few.

But Zhou’s latest verbal attack on Baidu is even louder than usual, coming in 6 lengthy posts on his microblog over the past week. I’m not a user of either Qihoo’s or Baidu’s security software, as I personally don’t trust such free products from Chinese companies. Qihoo was historically one of the worst culprits of opaque business practices, including using its free security software to load unwanted other products onto users’ computers and cellphones, and steer them to its free Internet browser.

So it’s quite humorous now to see Zhou ranting at Baidu’s software, which includes his frequent references to Robin Li as a “hooligan”. (microblog post) Zhou details how Baidu uses its leading search engine to steer web surfers to the company’s security software, and then makes it nearly impossible to get rid of that software after it’s installed. (microblog post) Never mind that previous similar complaints have been made about Qihoo’s own products.

One entertaining post in the series comes when Zhou describes how he planned to give a piece of his mind to Li on the sidelines of a major Internet conference last month near Shanghai. But then Zhou was enraged when Li cancelled the meeting at the last minute. (microblog post) All this comes as Qihoo may be trying to improve its reputation, after signing a steady series of recent deals to supply its software to government agencies and major state-owned companies. So perhaps Zhou is annoyed that Baidu is using some of his own old tricks, even as Qihoo itself tries to change its stripes.

From Zhou’s antics, let’s close out this microblogging round-up on a quieter note with the series of reflections from TCL’s Li Dongsheng and Alibaba’s Jack Ma. We’ll begin with Ma, who is usually quite reserved on his microblog despite his broader outspoken nature. In keeping with his past microblog posture, Ma is quite low-key in his year-end post, recalling an incident that occurred more than 20 years ago when most Chinese earned less than 100 yuan per month and Ma himself earned just 89 yuan.

In his post, Ma recalls one day all those years ago when he ran into a friend who had just done his first business deal as China was beginning to experiment with market reforms. The friend, flush with cash, offered to take Ma, recently graduated from college, out for a lavish meal. The 2 then feasted on bowls of noodles that would have cost Ma more than a month’s salary. (microblog post) Much has changed since then, including Ma’s own personal net worth which is now estimated at a whopping $23 billion following Alibaba’s IPO in September.

Finally let’s end this final microblog round-up of the year with Li Dongsheng, who was reflecting on the recent death of his mother at the age of 85. In his usual understated manner, Li recalled how his mother always supported him, and how he admired her emphasis on hard work and pursuit of positive goals. (microblog post) He also thanked his many friends for their support after her death. But true to form, Li doesn’t spend too much time telling his followers about his mother’s death, and quickly returns to work with discussion of more ordinary business matters like fund raising in the following days. (microblog post)