Former Google China Head John Liu Joins Qihoo 360

John Liu, former vice president at Google Inc. and head of Google China, has joined Qihoo 360 as Chief Business Officer. (Update: Qihoo announcement)

Dr. Liu left Google China in July 2013 after six-year stay there. He was the successor to the former Google China chief Kaifu Lee, founder of VC firm Innovation Works.

Qihoo 360 is the rising star and Baidu’s largest competitor in China’s search market. The company claimed more than 20% of market share within one and a half years since launch.

After Qihoo took over Netease’s Youdao search, and the mergence of Tencent’s Soso and Sohu’s Sogou, Qihoo 360, Baidu and Sogou+Soso had a combined 96% market as of December 2013, according to online data service CNZZ.

Google China only had a 1.65% market share then.

image credit: LinkedIn