Why is Qihoo 360 Security free?

[Gdant]

can anyone tell me why Qihoo Security is free?I know Qihoo earns by ad in its AV..why any other company doesn't make marketing strategy to make their products free?
Can we trust it as it can have any backdoor or bloatware hidden in it?

 

[cc2150dx]

Can we trust it as it can have any backdoor or bloatware hidden in it?

Read their privacy policy http://www.360safe.com/privacy.html

I personally don't like it. So, I don't use it.

 

[jackuars]

can anyone tell me why Qihoo Security is free?I know Qihoo earns by ad in its AV..why any other company doesn't make marketing strategy to make their products free?
Can we trust it as it can have any backdoor or bloatware hidden in it?

Sorry to correct you, Qihoo doesn't have any advertisements in it's interface. I suppose Qihoo is getting enough funds from the governement.

The product has been tested and re-tested by various independant labs and even users here, there's no backdoor/bloatware in it.

 

[jamescv7]

Can we trust it as it can have any backdoor or bloatware hidden in it?

Myth: Is it because the area or region is been face of known conspiracy and sneaky tactics will result to all companies will do it? I don't think so but privacy policy will be determine of their declaration and prior of disobey will have the right to report it to the agency.

 

[Ink]

can anyone tell me why Qihoo Security is free? I know Qihoo earns by ad in its AV..why any other company doesn't make marketing strategy to make their products free?
Can we trust it as it can have any backdoor or bloatware hidden in it?

Found via another Internet Giant, Google:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204707104578094460340552442

Qihoo makes its money on the traffic it generates through its antivirus software and a browser. The browser had 303 million monthly users as of September. In the third quarter, Qihoo's revenue grew 77% to $84 million from a year earlier. In 2011, the company posted revenue of $167.9 million.

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...-qihoo-360s-management-wants-you-to-know.aspx

Revenue is increasingly mobile-based
Qihoo's app store competes with Baidu and Tencent for share of the market, with the real money coming from games. Qihoo has made tremendous progress with games. Game revenue is growing faster than its online advertising revenue, and accounted for about 46.1% of sales last quarter.

Search monetization is around the corner
Qihoo reported that its search engine, So.com, has grown to take 30% of the market. That's quite impressive considering it's only 2 years old and competes against the strength of Baidu. The amount of money search traffic is generating for the company, however, is minuscule.

An ad exchange may be in the works
In order to help monetize search, Qihoo acquired MediaV last quarter. The acquisition will help in the near term with improved targeting for display and app store ads. Zhou also sees the acquisition helping with search advertising and contextual ads.

Imminently entering enterprise
Qihoo has had tremendous success providing security to consumers on their PCs and smartphones, but the company has yet to introduce a product for the users that could benefit most from security products -- businesses.

Qihoo can leverage its strong brand recognition in security to move into this multibillion-dollar industry. With the Chinese government now heavily promoting domestic businesses in enterprise security, the competition in the space is sparse. Therefore, Qihoo could gain an advantage from releasing a product as soon as possible -- as long as it's up to the high standards enterprises expect.​

August 2013
http://technode.com/2013/08/06/with...-take-over-a-quarter-of-chinas-search-market/

Qihoo started as a social search that didn’t perform well. But one of their side projects, online security service, gained traction. By partnering with Kaspersky, the service began generating a considerable amount of revenue for the company. But to Zhou that was far from good enough. Then Qihoo decided to offer security services for free and built a browser to pen users that rushed in. When the whole security market had to follow suit to give away security products, Qihoo already had started making money through online advertising and online games.

Now users do searches through Qihoo’s is not because that’s their choice but that its search box is everywhere, on security products, browsers, the start-up page, or mobile apps they use on daily basis.

There are people like me that don’t like it’s practices or don’t think it creates new markets — personally I don’t like Baidu, either, for I don’t think Baidu ever created more values to the economy or society. But here is a rising power who is able to grab market shares from existing giants and become a giant itself. Hope it’s not a bad-hearted one.​

Quick read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qihoo

 

[Qihoo 360 Support Team]

Sorry to correct you, Qihoo doesn't have any advertisements in it's interface. I suppose Qihoo is getting enough funds from the governement.

The product has been tested and re-tested by various independant labs and even users here, there's no backdoor/bloatware in it.

Qihoo 360 is China's largest Internet security service provider, and has the world's largest user base.
Qihoo 360 challenged conventional wisdom by offering free antivirus software with innovative cloud technology, thus rapidly earning the trust of 500 million users and extending its market scope to US$10 billion.
Our Vision & Values is To become the most respected Internet security services company in the world, To put customers FIRST and To strive for constant innovation.
Revenue comes from sharing user traffic with partners atop the 360 open platform.
User base built from distribution of 360 free software and services.
Now, Qihoo 360 is promoting 360 open platform to overseas market and will make profit from the platform and model of Search, Navigation, Game and Advertisement.

We offer comprehensive Internet and mobile security products and services for free to about 500 million PC Internet users and over 640 million mobile users in China.
With friendly and interactive user experience and leading cloud-based Internet security technologies, our products are trusted by a massive and loyal users who enjoy Qihoo 360's around-the-clock protection for their daily online activities.
We continue to broaden and deepen our product and service offerings while adhering to a use-centric philosophy. In addition, we will leverage our massive user base to build a truly open Internet platform, offering a wide range of products and services from third parties, such as web games, online video, E-commerce, travel, SNS, and other applications.

Click to read our financial reports.(http://ir.360.cn/phoenix.zhtml?c=243376&p=irol-reportsOther )

 

[cruelsister]

Qihoo can be looked at like Google- Android is free- users please use our Search engine- advertisers see how many people use our search engine- advertisers give us more cash for an ad. It's called a loss leader.

Fun Fact- Qihoo just paid 17 million for the 360.com domain (from Vodafone). This is the biggest payment for a domain yet, exceeding the 16 million paid for insure.com in 2009.

(Qihoo 360 Support- Good luck on earnings next month. If you have any insight (Insider Information) on how Mobile is going please share it here. We won't tell anyone!)