Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

The long-running soap opera between Qihoo 360, a major Chinese antivirus software provider, and local Internet titan Tencent Holdings took a new turn last week, when the Supreme People's Court rejected Qihoo's appeal against an earlier unfair competition ruling and ordered it to pay 5 million yuan ($820,000) to Tencent for economic losses and other expenses.

The dispute between Qihoo and Tencent - which is now referred to by many as the "3Q War" - has a somewhat complicated back story. In broad strokes, the ruckus can be traced back to September 2010, when Qihoo accused Tencent of violating the privacy of its users with Tencent's QQ Doctor, an antivirus program packaged with its QQ instant messaging platform. According to reports, Qihoo's antivirus tool, 360 Safeguard, and QQ Doctor were recognizing each other as viruses and uninstalling them from users' computers. QQ users were also said to be blocked from signing into their accounts if they were running 360 Safeguard. This effectively forced users into choosing between Qihoo's popular antivirus tool or Tencent's QQ.

Things quickly escalated into a spat of lawsuits and countersuits, with each company accusing the other of unfair competitive practices. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which at first simply ordered the two companies to apologize, was eventually forced to step in with more direct injunctions. In November 2011, the ministry issued draft regulations prohibiting IT companies from making incompatible software and using deceit or coercion to force users to uninstall legal software.

While it's still anyone's guess as to whether the court's latest judgment will bring an end to the 3Q war, we should turn our attention to what this struggle says about conditions in China's IT market as a whole.

There's little doubt that many of China's computer users see the abovementioned tactics as shameless ploys to grab market share at the expense of users' rights and interests. Regardless of their motives, companies which stoop to finger-pointing and aggressive maneuvers that play customers like chess pieces will never win the trust of the market. Enterprises in the IT sector must learn that real competitive strength comes from satisfying users, not underhanded digs at rivals.

Relevant authorities should encourage fair and transparent competition at this stage. The legal dispute between Qihoo and Tencent landed in the Supreme People's Court in November, marking the second trial brought by Qihoo against Tencent for monopolizing the market for instant messaging software and related services. This also marks the first such case involving the domestic Internet industry since China's anti-monopoly laws were first promulgated in 2008. Hopefully this ruling will provide much needed guidance on anti-competitive practices in the industry.

China's history with the Internet is relatively short compared to other major world economies, but examples from overseas show how anti-monopoly regulations are regularly used to scrutinize the activities of the world's largest IT companies. In fact, the frequency and length of antitrust probes in the US and Europe should inspire authorities here in China. Microsoft, for instance, was under investigation for monopolizing various aspects of the personal computing market for over a decade in the US and Europe. Google has also found itself under antitrust investigation in the US and other countries in recent years as well.

As China's IT companies develop their technological capabilities in a market that is becoming increasingly crowded, now is the time for all parties to focus on leveling the playing field. Anti-competitive practices should have no place in the IT landscape of tomorrow.

The author is a reporter from the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn