Is Qihoo 360 in financial trouble?

Not currently. The company posted Q1 2026 revenue growth of 7.9% year over year with RMB 109 million net profit as of 2026-03-31, continuing the turnaround from its FY2024 net loss. The bigger concern is its stock, which traded around ¥8.60 on 2026-07-17, near the bottom of its 52-week range of ¥8.26 to ¥14.68.

Who are Qihoo 360's biggest competitors?

Its closest rivals are Qi An Xin and Knownsec, both Chinese firms already selling AI-driven vulnerability-hunting tools to the same government and enterprise buyers Qihoo 360 targets. Zhipu AI is also pushing into the same AI-security space, and none of the four holds a clear technical lead as of the July 2026 assessment across 301 companies in Qihoo's category.

Is Qihoo 360 at risk from AI?

The main AI risk comes from domestic competitors adopting AI vulnerability-hunting tools rather than from foreign AI labs. Export controls keep foreign AI labs like Anthropic out of China's security market, so 360 instead competes with Qi An Xin and Knownsec, who ship comparable AI security products to the same state and enterprise buyers, leaving little room for 360 to differentiate.

What is Qihoo 360's biggest risk?

The biggest risk is that its flagship AI product, Tulongfeng, offers little differentiation from what Qi An Xin already sells to the same state and enterprise customers. As of 2026-06-24, Tulongfeng claimed 3,432 bugs found with only 105 confirmed, a gap that independent researchers may scrutinize further through the end of 2026.

Does Qihoo 360 have any real competitive edge?

Its edge is limited to China's closed security procurement market, where foreign vendors like Anthropic cannot compete due to export controls. That protection does nothing against domestic rivals, since Qi An Xin, Knownsec, and Zhipu AI are all pursuing similar AI vulnerability-detection launches in the same period, per the July 2026 assessment of 301 category peers.

What should I watch for with Qihoo 360 going forward?

Qihoo 360's Q2 2026 earnings are due 2026-08-28 and will show whether the recent profitable revenue growth trend, up 9.37% year over year in FY2025 as of 2025-12-31, continues. Also worth tracking is whether independent researchers further examine Tulongfeng's vulnerability-count claims beyond the existing Microsoft CVE dispute.

Cybersecurity companies · China

Qihoo 360

360.com ↗

Chinese cybersecurity and internet firm serving government, enterprise, and consumer users.

Losing its protection

Assessed 30 July 2026 · Evidence as of 30 July 2026

The structural protection is eroding.

On the recordSince 30 July 2026 · Checkable from Q1 2027 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: FY2026 full-year results against RMB 213-318M profit guidance, and whether Tulongfeng/Yitianzhen convert to signed contracts

The call

Qihoo 360 holds a protected seat in Chinese government security work, but it shares that seat with bigger domestic rivals and its old consumer and ad business keeps shrinking under AI pressure.

Qihoo 360 makes computer security software and services, mostly for the Chinese government and businesses. The Chinese government requires them to use domestic companies for security, which protects Qihoo from foreign competitors like Microsoft, but not from larger Chinese rivals such as Huawei, Tencent, and Alibaba who operate in the same protected market and have more resources. The company's old consumer antivirus business and advertising are being eaten away by artificial intelligence tools that can do similar work automatically, and its future depends on whether its new AI-powered security products (like one that finds computer vulnerabilities automatically) actually get bought by government agencies by late 2026, or if they stay just announcements.

Why

AI pressure: AI-native security agents (Qwen, DeepSeek, Zhipu GLM based tools) automating threat detection. AI agents can already scan, patch, and respond to incidents, cutting into the manual antivirus and signature-based work 360 built its name on. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.

Bigger players: Huawei, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Security, Qi'anxin, Sangfor. Bigger, richer players compete for the same government and enterprise security contracts inside China's protected vendor list. Could a giant copy it? Probably.

What protects it. China restricts government and critical-infrastructure security contracts to domestic vendors, keeping foreign AI labs and cloud giants out of that specific room.

What would change this call

Qihoo's FY26 results versus its RMB 213-318M net profit guidance. A miss would show the government-security business isn't offsetting legacy decline.
Whether Tulongfeng or Yitianzhen convert to signed government/enterprise contracts by FY26 results. Absence of contracts would show the AI-security push is press activity, not revenue.
Alibaba Cloud or Tencent Security announcing a bundled AI-security product aimed at Qihoo's government accounts. Would show rivals directly targeting Qihoo's protected customer base.

Key numbers

TTM revenue ~CNY 8.84B, up 9.2% YoY (2026-04-30)
Q1 2026 net income ~CNY 645M, back to profit after Q3 2025 loss (2026-03-31)
Market cap ~CNY 59-61B, down ~19% year to date (2026-07-01)

Named risks

Razor thin margins with FY2026 profit guidance of only RMB 213 to 318 million on flat revenue. Severity: high
Tulongfeng vulnerability-discovery claims disputed by Microsoft attribution in June 2026. Severity: medium
US Entity List and DoD military-companies designation restrict access to US technology and capital. Severity: high
Legacy consumer antivirus and ad-search business directly exposed to AI-native erosion. Severity: medium
Government security moat shared with larger, better-capitalized domestic rivals like Huawei and Alibaba Cloud. Severity: medium

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
Huawei	contesting	Rated among leading players in China's government and CII security market as of July 2026
Alibaba Cloud	contesting	Contests same protected government security accounts as Qihoo 360, per July 2026 market report
Tencent Security	contesting	Named as competing incumbent in China cybersecurity market report dated July 2026
Qi'anxin	contesting	Direct domestic security peer within same protected regulatory moat as of 2026
Anthropic	gaining on	Mythos AI security tool cited as the benchmark Qihoo 360 raced to match with Tulongfeng in June 2026
Baidu	losing to	Legacy so.com search and ad business remains structurally exposed to AI-native search erosion in 2026

Questions people ask

Is Qihoo 360 in financial trouble?: Not currently. The company posted Q1 2026 revenue growth of 7.9% year over year with RMB 109 million net profit as of 2026-03-31, continuing the turnaround from its FY2024 net loss. The bigger concern is its stock, which traded around ¥8.60 on 2026-07-17, near the bottom of its 52-week range of ¥8.26 to ¥14.68.
Who are Qihoo 360's biggest competitors?: Its closest rivals are Qi An Xin and Knownsec, both Chinese firms already selling AI-driven vulnerability-hunting tools to the same government and enterprise buyers Qihoo 360 targets. Zhipu AI is also pushing into the same AI-security space, and none of the four holds a clear technical lead as of the July 2026 assessment across 301 companies in Qihoo's category.
Is Qihoo 360 at risk from AI?: The main AI risk comes from domestic competitors adopting AI vulnerability-hunting tools rather than from foreign AI labs. Export controls keep foreign AI labs like Anthropic out of China's security market, so 360 instead competes with Qi An Xin and Knownsec, who ship comparable AI security products to the same state and enterprise buyers, leaving little room for 360 to differentiate.
What is Qihoo 360's biggest risk?: The biggest risk is that its flagship AI product, Tulongfeng, offers little differentiation from what Qi An Xin already sells to the same state and enterprise customers. As of 2026-06-24, Tulongfeng claimed 3,432 bugs found with only 105 confirmed, a gap that independent researchers may scrutinize further through the end of 2026.
Does Qihoo 360 have any real competitive edge?: Its edge is limited to China's closed security procurement market, where foreign vendors like Anthropic cannot compete due to export controls. That protection does nothing against domestic rivals, since Qi An Xin, Knownsec, and Zhipu AI are all pursuing similar AI vulnerability-detection launches in the same period, per the July 2026 assessment of 301 category peers.
What should I watch for with Qihoo 360 going forward?: Qihoo 360's Q2 2026 earnings are due 2026-08-28 and will show whether the recent profitable revenue growth trend, up 9.37% year over year in FY2025 as of 2025-12-31, continues. Also worth tracking is whether independent researchers further examine Tulongfeng's vulnerability-count claims beyond the existing Microsoft CVE dispute.

Timeline

2026-07-13Controlling shareholder plans to sell 56 million shares for tax payment
2026-06-30US restricts export of Anthropic's Mythos AI model to foreign nationals, barring it from China
2026-06-29Attribution disputes surface over Tulongfeng CVE credit claims
2026-06-24Zhou Hongyi unveils Tulongfeng AI vulnerability agent and Yitianzhen defense system at ISC.AI 2026
2026-03-16ai.360.com begins hosting Zhipu AI's GLM-5-Turbo and GLM-5V-Turbo models
2024-08-31Qihoo 360 settles Altimeo shareholder class action for $29.75 million
2022-10-31US DoD adds Qihoo 360 to Chinese military companies list
2020-05-31Qihoo 360 added to US Entity List
2018-02-28Shares begin trading on Shanghai Stock Exchange as 601360 via reverse merger
2016-07-31Take-private deal closes, Qihoo 360 delists from NYSE

Head to head

Baidu Security vs Qihoo 360 Qi An Xin (Qianxin) vs Qihoo 360 Qihoo 360 vs Rising (Beijing Rising Information Technology)

Revision history

30 July 2026

First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

In the same band

Seqrite Meiya Pico NSFOCUS