Opinion | Tencent prevails in anti-trust suit

Frankly speaking, this outcome doesn't surprise me and does seem to reflect a growing sophistication in China's legal system at handling major business disputes. I do agree to some extent that Tencent has come to dominate China's Internet in some ways. That dominance is apparent in the company's market capitalization, which is about the same or even bigger than all of China's other Internet companies combined.

But at the same time, China's Internet is a very big place that enjoys strong competition in most major segments. Tencent may enjoy the leading position in online games and social networking services -- areas where it shows no signs of weakening anytime soon. But it's still a secondary player in other big areas including online search and e-commerce, two of the most lucrative areas on the web.

This particular outcome wasn't too difficult to predict, as the case seemed a bit strange to me from the outset. Qihoo is a famously litigious company that sues and has been sued by nearly every other major Internet firm, so it wasn't that surprising to see it filed this lawsuit. But in most western countries this kind of anti-trust lawsuit would typically be filed by government regulators rather than individual companies, so it was a bit strange that Qihoo decided to take this action itself.

Qihoo's choice of choosing Tencent as its target was also a bit strange, since the two companies don't really compete in any major product areas. What's more, Qihoo doesn't seem to have any major aspirations in online games or social networking, which are Tencent's two strongest areas. As an outside observer, I would have expected Qihoo to target Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) with its anti-trust action, since many have accused Baidu of monopolizing China's search market with its share of about 70 per cent. A lawsuit against Baidu would have also made more sense, since Qihoo launched its own aggressive search initiative last summer.