China's top Internet firm Tencent Holdings and Qihoo 360 publicly apologized to Internet users after the Chinese Government stepped in, ordering both parties to end their dispute.
Tencent, China's largest Internet firm based in Shenzhen with a market value of US$42 billion, and Qihoo 360, the top provider of antivirus software, have been involved in a monthlong public dispute, culminating with Tencent cutting service to some of its users early this month.
Tencent had said Nov. 10 that 5 million of its instant messaging users were still affected by the dispute.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ordered both firms to end their disagreement and to publicly apologize to users, Xinhua reported late Sunday.
Both firms issued their letters of apology late Sunday, apologizing for the disruptions to users although neither side mentioned whether the central issues were resolved.
Tencent and Qihoo 360 have been involved in a tussle for more than a month accusing each other of bad business practices, such as spying, hacking and leaking users' privacy.
Xinhua reported that the ministry will investigate the dispute to see whether either of the firms' actions had broken the law. (SD-Agencies)
