Chinese IT's 'alpha wolf ' releases new book with insights into his life

A collaborative autobiography by Zhou Hongyi, founder of the Chinese internet security company Qihoo 360, features anecdotes from the entrepreneur's life and his business choices.

Dian Fu Zhe (The Game Changer) was released on Nov 7, days after his company acquired a domestic company listed on Shanghai's A-share market for 50.4 billion yuan ($7.6 billion), marking his company's return to the Chinese stock market from the New York Stock Exchange.

The book has been co-authored by journalist-turned-biographer Fan Haitao who did a master's degree in oral history at Columbia University.

"It was a mark of success for a Chinese technology company to be listed in the United States, so many people were curious to know why we returned after five years," Zhou, 47, writes in his book.

"The (Edward) Snowden incident made me think about the grave challenges in cybersecurity faced by a nation," he continues.

"As a cybersecurity company, we need to stand in line with national interests, especially when many government organizations and banks are using our services."

In an email interview, Zhou says he thinks that competition in the IT industry has entered its second stage, with artificial intelligence and the internet of things being two major trends.

The first stage was more about using internet services to increase connectivity in society.

"With internet access becoming an indispensable public service like electricity and water, cybersecurity will influence offline security as well," he says, citing the WannaCry ransomware incident in May that affected many banks, hospitals and universities worldwide.

This is not the first time that Zhou has surprised the industry with his unconventional moves, and the title of the new book seems to echo that.

Zhou was born in the small county of Qichun in Hubei province in 1970. But his family moved to Zhengzhou, Henan province, where Zhou spent most of his childhood. He was a "headache" for his teachers, the authors write.

Zhou talked to classmates while his classes were going on and drew caricatures of teachers for fun.

But Zhou became engrossed with computers after his first computer lesson in 1985.

He subscribed to the country's first newspaper on computers, Children Computer Newspaper, and kept reading it through his high school years.

The computer was still a technological novelty back then. IBM created the first personal computer in 1981 and Apple sold its first Macintosh in 1984.

Zhou was determined that being a programmer would be his career.

He once announced his ambition to his high school classmates, saying: "I will be a computer developer and create things that will change the world."

In 1988, Zhou was admitted by Xi'an Jiaotong University to major in computer science. He graduated from the university with a master's degree in system engineering in 1995. After that, he worked at Founder, an early Chinese IT company, for three years before starting his own company, Beijing 3721 Technology.

The company provided a Chinese domain name service so that early internet users in the country could visit sites by typing the Chinese names without needing to remember their English address.

The service was a success after its launch in 1998, and the company was acquired by Yahoo China in 2004.

Zhou founded Qihoo 360 in 2006. At a time when most anti-virus software came with a big price, he started to offer it free of charge.

"It changed the existing business model in the industry," writes Zhou. "It was like declaring war on everyone in this field."

Zhou's company also challenged Chinese tech giant Tencent in 2010 by claiming that the latter's instant-messaging tool QQ "stole" users' private data. Tencent denied the charge, took Qihoo 360 to court and won the case. Qihoo 360 had to make a public apology and pay for damages to Tencent's image.

During the quarrel, Tencent had also asked its users to choose between QQ and the 360 anti-virus software.

Zhou was dubbed an "alpha wolf" and a "maverick" by some in China's IT industry as a result.

"I like to challenge established rules and practices," Zhou writes in the book.

"If one day I become complacent, dispirited and compromise reality, I hope energetic young people come and defeat me."

xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn