Amid privatisation rumours, Qihoo 360 eyes overseas expansion through Hong Kong deal

Qihoo 360 Technology, mainland China's biggest internet and mobile security software provider, aims to further build up its internet search business through a global advertising operation in Hong Kong.

"This move signifies our commitment to further developing our business in overseas markets," Qi Xiangdong, the co-founder and president of Qihoo 360, said on Thursday.

Headquartered in Causeway Bay, QS Search was recently appointed by Qihoo 360 to serve as the firm's global advertising arm in Hong Kong. It will provide sales, marketing, consulting and technical support services for Qihoo 360’s online advertisers worldwide.

"Hong Kong is a strategic location with a well-established free economy, a high level of productivity and efficiency, and a pool of great bilingual talent for best servicing international brands and advertisers, as well as major advertising and marketing agencies in this region and all over the world," said David Ip, the global business advisor at Qihoo 360.

Ip said that companies based outside of mainland China would find it easier to connect with the country's enormous consumer market through the company's flagship search engine, Haosou.com, as well as its 360 Personal Start-up page and mobile app store.

Haosou is the second most-popular online search engine in mainland China, but lags far behind market leader Baidu. According to consultancy iResearch, Baidu controls an estimated 81.6 per cent of the market in terms of online search revenue, with Qihoo 360's offerings at 2.8 per cent, behind US internet giant Google (10.3 per cent) and Sohu.com's Sogou search engine (4.3 per cent).