What’s the Difference between Qihu360 and Baidu, Google and Tencent?

Let’s look at the official data released by these Internet giants in China:

  • Tencent QQ: 790 million users;
  • Baidu: 500 million users;
  • Qihu 360 Safeguard: 420 million users;
  • The total number of Chinese Internet users: 380 million.

We can never make sure the accuracy of the data above, as they were all released by the companies themselves.

But what we can know for sure is that these companies have large numbers of users in common.

People use 360 also use Baidu and QQ

There is an interesting fact in the Internet world in China: Qihu 360’s users are widely recognized as less computer savvy and called “Computer sucker”.  Actually this is a all-time true statement for the users of any Internet products. For example we never call the users of Bing computer suckers.

Since the users of 360 are also the users of Baidu and Tencent QQ, why are only 360’s users called computer suckers?

Single-button users

Baidu and Tencent started their products in the early days in China’s Internet world. Both of them went through a long period of time for user cultivation, which have resulted in very high user loyalty.

On the other hand, 360 is a late comer, and since they started, they have actively participated in the competition of red oceans: personal computer security in 2006, web browser in 2008, and search engine in 2012.

Qihu 360’s target users are single-button users, who prefer using mouse instead of keyboard and video or audio chat instead of typing. They don’t use search engines as much as the more computer-savvy people do – they would rather use web directories like Hao123. If you have paid attention to 360’s products, you would find they have many “single button” functions, such as single-button to clear cache, single to test PC condition, etc.

The Internet companies regard 360’s users less computer savvy and as people become more and more familiar with computers, 360’s users would leave 360.

However, single-button can also be regarded as a sign of good design. If you are an Apple fan, you would notice that Apple’s products, which pursue minimal designs, are also kind of “single-button”.

Maybe this is good news for Qihu360.

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