China Malware War Gets Personal

bcaulfield writes to tell us Zhou Hongyi has filed a 3.6 million yuan ($450,000) defamation suit against Yahoo China. Hongyi, the former president of Yahoo China, filed his suit in response to comments made in a recent Yahoo press conference accusing him of unethical business practices. From the article: "A rift between Mr. Zhou and Yahoo China has been developing since before his departure from Yahoo last year, just prior to Alibaba's takeover of Yahoo's China operations. Mr. Zhou doled out generous bonuses to Yahoo employees in a ploy his detractors derided as a naked purchase of loyalties. Mr. Zhou defended the disbursements. 'Many of these people were longtime Yahoo employees, and they were under no obligation to follow me,' he said. 'It was my money to do with as I wanted.'" Update 08/20/2006 15:01 GMT by SM: Corrected the currency for the suit.

Comments

$450,000 suit, not $3.6m

[tgtanman]

From TFA: "Zhou Hongyi, controversial Internet entrepreneur and former president of Yahoo China, has filed a 3.6-million yuan ($450,000) defamation suit against his former employer in Beijing's Second Intermediary People's Court."

this is ironic

[deconvolution]

Zhou Hongyi was often titled "The father of Chinese malware" ......

The 3721 assistant plugin he created is totally a nightmare, especially in a workgroup environment. I think the only motivation of this lawsuit is about money.

Remember "Alibaba"?

[Ilgaz]

"Alibaba, the Hangzhou-based B2B e-commerce company that took control of Yahoo China in August 2005, announced that the company and its subsidiaries would "henceforth and for all time cease to make use of the services provided by companies invested in or related to Zhou Hongyi."

Alibaba's subsidiaries include Yahoo China, payment solution provider Alipay, and leading Chinese auction site Taobao.com."

(It was also the completely unserious site who allowed Apple Mac G6 (!) to be listed on their pages)

http://www.engadget.com/2006/05/11/mac-g6-now-avai lable-for-499/

"Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), the Red PCs web site seems to be down, though the machine is still listed on the Alibaba.com site as available for purchase with free global shipping and a one-year warranty."

Standard business practice

[amightywind]

Many of these people were longtime Yahoo employees, and they were under no obligation to follow me,' he said. 'It was my money to do with as I wanted.'

Graft is standard business practice in China. Yahoo would be wise to consider a recent quote by Donald Rumsfeld: "You've got to be kiddding! Do you think there is gambling in the casino?"