174: Chapter 174 The 3Q War Erupts

The war of words was instantly dialed to the max. Forums, Tieba, blogs, and news portals were completely filled with both sides' internet water armies and bystanders tearing into each other.

Behind the scenes, the engineers of both sides had already fought to a fever pitch.

On September 7th, 360 unleashed its true killer move: qq bodyguard.

To Tencent, this was also a piece of rogue software, but to users, it was a god-tier tool.

One-click blocking of all QQ pop-up ads, one-click cleanup of redundant QQ junk, one-click banning of QQ background scanning...

A single fatal blow, straight into Tencent's heart.

One had to know that QQ pop-ups, ads, and bundled value-added services were currently Tencent's most core and aggressive sources of revenue.

Although the pop-ups disgusted users, they brought in hard cash.

Relying on high conversion rates, they could generate billions in revenue a year.

360's qq bodyguard was equivalent to poking a hole in Tencent's money bag.

To make matters worse, Zhou Hongyi openly declared on social media: "qq bodyguard gives users peace of mind and returns a clean computer to them."

"QQ ads disturb the public, so we will manage them for the users."

360 didn't have fewer ads than Tencent, and this move by Zhou Hongyi completely infuriated Pony Ma.

He personally took command at the headquarters, and the entire company entered a wartime state.

The technical, public relations, legal, and operations departments all sounded the highest alarms.

On September 20th, Tencent launched a powerful counterattack. QQ Doctor was force-updated, beginning to targetedly intercept 360's processes and block 360's drivers.

Was this to further bundle with QQ and quickly seize the security market?

Both sides completely tore off their masks, upgrading from a war of words to a technological war.

With the version updates, some users' computers began to experience blue screens, conflicts, and crashes. Netizens turned from mere onlookers into victims.

Guangzhou, Transsion Building.

Shen Fei sat in his office, looking at the screen full of news, his brow furrowing slightly.

The 3Q War had indeed arrived. His preparations had not been in vain.

But in his previous life, it had clearly only fully broken out at the end of October. This time, it was actually a full two months early.

Had history shifted?

But a faint smile quickly played on the corner of his mouth. It didn't matter when it broke out; he had been prepared for a long time anyway.

"Mr. Shen, both sides are going crazy with the mudslinging, and their tech teams have already started fighting. Isn't it time for us to make our move?"

Liu Zhihong stood to the side and said anxiously.

The entire internet was in a complete mess right now; it was the perfect time to enter the fray.

Shen Fei looked up at the somewhat anxious Liu Zhihong, Huang Tianya, and the others. "It's not time yet. This is just the beginning. Have the technical department continue to optimize our transsion security guardian and make sure the protection features are top-notch."

Liu Zhihong was truly stunned this time. The chairmen of both sides had already started a flame war online, attacking each other's weak points, and yet it still wasn't time...

"Mr. Shen, this heat isn't enough? Pony Ma and Zhou Hongyi are practically strangling each other through the screen, just short of scheduling a real-life fight online.

Do you mean they will continue to fight? Are they really going to schedule a fight in real life?"

"I didn't say that. But our most important task right now is to continue refining transsion security guardian, pushing protection, cleanup, interception, and privacy protection to the absolute limit.

Do not take any sides, and do not engage in any aggressive behavior."

Liu Zhihong nodded thoughtfully. Although he still didn't quite understand, his boss's judgment had never been wrong, so he nodded. "Understood."

"Just wait and see. The real show is yet to come."

...

On September 25th, the cyberattacks from both sides escalated further.

Tencent also officially issued that famous open letter across the entire network: 'We have just made a very difficult decision.'

The article detailedly accused 360 of unethical behavior and then provided a solution, forcing users to make a choice between the two: if they installed 360, they could no longer log into QQ.

If they used QQ, they couldn't use 360...

The confidence behind making this decision was QQ, which was the absolute hegemon of social software.

If they left 360, there was still Tencent's software, but if they left QQ, there was no alternative.

After Tencent forced hundreds of millions of users to take sides, almost at the same time, multiple internet companies such as Kingsoft Network, Baidu, and Kingsoft Software expressed their support for Tencent.

Multiple companies publicly accused 360 of interfering with the normal operations of other companies.

360 immediately launched the same countermeasure: if users wanted to use 360, they could not use QQ.

Both sides had completely lost their minds in the fight, and neither was willing to take a step back.

The entire internet was furious. User complaints instantly exceeded 99+, and public opinion completely exploded.

Relevant media outlets published articles overnight: 'Tencent and 360 Fighting to the Death?'

'The Most Tragic War on the Internet'

'A difficult decision? I think it's a difficult way of robbing us of our money.'

'Why should I be forced to choose? It's my computer, I make the decisions. Who is Tencent to order me around?'

'If I install 360, I can't log into QQ? Why don't you just rob my hard drive directly?'

'I've used QQ for ten years, and today is the first time I find it absolutely disgusting.'

'Before, pop-up ads were just annoying, but now they are straight-up kidnapping users. Qiyou's behavior is too unsightly.'

'Both of them are internet rogues, nothing more.'

'Who gave you the courage to force a choice? Won't the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology do something about this?'

Of course, Zhou Hongyi did not escape either; his Weibo comment section was also filled with 'greetings'.

'One is a peeping tom, the other is a rogue. Neither is any good.'

'Can you guys not harm ordinary folks when you fight?'

'Both are toxic cancer, and we users are the ones suffering.'

'Is there any other alternative? I really don't want to use either of these two anymore.'

The network security market, which once had multiple competitors, was left with only 360 dominating after the arrival of the free era. This was also the main reason why he dared to openly fight Tencent.

Only now did Liu Zhihong finally understand what his boss meant by 'the heat is enough.'

He really hadn't expected both sides to fight to such an extent. Did they really not care about the regulators at all?

On September 26th, all Taishan System mobile phones underwent a silent update.

There was only a single line of small text in the update description: transsion security guardian. Your free security steward only protects, it does not fight.

When some users saw that the system had automatically finished upgrading, they opened it and were surprised to find:

The mobile security guard had already been changed from the former 360 to transsion security guardian.

The entire interface was very clean and refreshing. It allowed one-click virus scanning and removal, with a virus database containing all mainstream viruses currently known on the market.

It could also automatically block ads, automatically clean up junk, protect privacy, and automatically scan during idle times.

Confronted with such a convenient security guard, users were dumbfounded.

The software they had been praying for had actually appeared—free, easy to use, and not forcing users to do anything.

Truly conscientious.

Forums and Tieba were flooded with posts once again, but this time, the protagonist had changed to transsion security guardian.

'Transsion has achieved godhood with this move.'

'While others fight, they protect the users.'

'Tencent and 360 forced me to choose one or the other. Transsion lets me have both, and even protects my security.'

'Some enterprises should learn from this: not taking sides, not clout-chasing, not causing trouble, just doing the work. This is what you call a security software.'

'Transsion scored big points with this move...'

In just these five hours, the reputation of transsion security guardian exploded. Within 12 hours of going online, the download volume of transsion security guardian surpassed 5 million.

Among them, the desktop version surpassed 3.5 million.

Shenzhen Tencent Building.

Pony Ma sat in his office, the soaring curve of transsion security guardian lit up on the screen in front of him.

In less than 24 hours, the download volume had already surpassed 10 million, and its reputation was still continuously rising.

They were clearly their own major shareholder, yet... what on earth were they doing?

Releasing a security manager at this time, could they also want a piece of the pie in the instant messaging market?

He remained silent for a long time, and finally picked up the phone to dial Shen Fei's number, wanting to see what exactly this major shareholder meant...