China government intervenes to end Internet firms’ spat

China's top Internet firm Tencent Holdings and Qihoo 360 publicly apologised to Internet users after the Chinese government stepped in, ordering both parties to end their dispute.
Tencent, China's largest Internet firm with a market value of $42 bln, and Qihoo 360, the top provider of antivirus software, have been involved in a month-long public dispute, culminating with Tencent cutting service to some of its users early this month.
Tencent had said on November 10 that 5 mln of it instant messaging users were still affected by the dispute.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ordered both firms to end their disagreement and to publicly apologise to users.
Both firms issued their letters of apology late on 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.