Qihoo 360, the Chinese online security company (more or less) reportedly secretly invested into a web games vertical site 2366.com, the deal was completed in last August, according to people familiar with the matter.
Guo Haibin, Senior Director of Qihoo’s web gaming business confirmed the NYSE-listed company’s investment in 2366.com, a gaming vertical focusing on browser-based web games.
There’re tons of 2366s out there in China’s gaming market, such as 4399.com, 3366.com (backed by Tencent), 7k7k.com, 178.com, duowan.com and so forth. The market has been seeing mounting competition since like always as gaming is one of the rare industries that actually make money.
According to Qihoo 360’s latest financial results, gaming-related business has generated a large chunk of revenue for the company.
Qihoo also operated another gaming site wan.360.cn.
Earlier this year, Qihoo360 set up a joint venture with uuu9.com, one of the leading gaming portals in China with Qihoo 360 controlling 80% of the new company.