On January 19, there have been many "ice-breaking" events in the Internet circle recently. First, Tencent and ByteDance officially announced their cooperation.KingGlory" after 5 yearsfirstThe ban on TikTok was lifted. Later, Zhou Hongyi and Fu Shanda reconciled and talked about AI together in a live broadcast 16 years after their breakup.
According to a poster exposed online, on January 21,360Founder Zhou Hongyi will have a dialogue with Cheetah Mobile Chairman and CEO Fu Sheng about the big model. The poster's promotional text is also very interesting: "Fu Sheng x Zhou Hongyi 121 march together" "Reunion after 20 years".
Fu Sheng himself retweeted the poster and wrote, "Surprising? Unexpected? The power of AI!"
After this wave of operations, netizens couldn’t help but ask: Have the 16-year grudges been really let go?
From fighting side by side to becoming enemies
Fu Sheng was once Zhou Hongyi's most capable subordinate.
In 2003, Fu Sheng joined Zhou Hongyi's 3721 company and was favored by Zhou Hongyi because of his good record keeping. In that year, 3721 company was sold to Yahoo after many verbal battles and legal proceedings with Baidu. Fu Sheng followed Zhou Hongyi to join Yahoo.
In 2005, Baidu went public, Zhou Hongyi left Yahoo and founded Qihoo, and Fu Sheng joined him again. At first, Qihoo's main business was search, and Zhou Hongyi put all his efforts into it, but this business never got much better. Instead, the "Rogue Killer" (later renamed 360 Security Guard) made by Fu Sheng became popular.
Therefore, Zhou Hongyi changed his strategic goal, shifting the company's main business from search to network security, and renamed the company "Qihoo 360". It was also from this time that Zhou Hongyi and Fu Sheng began to have a rift. As the main person in charge of the project, Fu Sheng put a lot of effort into 360 Security Guard and was called the "Father of 360 Security Guard". However, he and Zhou Hongyi had conflicts over the development of this business.
Some people say that this is the boss picking the fruits. But in the boss's view, the fruits produced on his territory naturally belong to him, and there is no such thing as stealing the credit from his subordinates. Finally, in October 2008, Fu Sheng resigned and left. Because Qihoo signed an 18-month non-compete agreement with Fu Sheng, after leaving Qihoo, he entered the venture capital industry and started his own business, but the response was not good. It was not until he met his benefactor Lei Jun that Fu Sheng ushered in another spring in his career.
In 2009, Fu Sheng founded Keniu Imaging. In May 2010, Keniu Antivirus Software was released. Six months later, Keniu merged with Kingsoft Security led by Lei Jun to form Kingsoft Network, with Fu Sheng as CEO. Then, the lawsuit came knocking.
In 2011, Zhou Hongyi's company sued Fu Sheng, listing his three major "crimes": using Qihoo's confidential information to develop Keniu antivirus software; violating the non-compete agreement and starting a business privately; and poaching former employees. The two sides went to court, and Zhou Hongyi lost the case.
Since then, Fu Sheng's career has entered an accelerated period. In March 2014, Kingsoft Network was renamed Cheetah Mobile, and Fu Sheng succeeded as CEO. On May 8 of the same year, Fu Sheng led the company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2016, Fu Sheng entered the field of artificial intelligence and established Cheetah Star. Two years later, its new robot product was released.
Behind the settlement: Is it all thanks to the power of AI?
As fierce as the quarrel was, the current live broadcast together is as surprising. Even Fu Sheng himself couldn't help but write "Surprised? Unexpected?" when forwarding the poster, and said that the live broadcast of the two people together is "the power of AI." According to Sina Technology, the relationship between Fu Sheng and Zhou Hongyi has long been "ice-broken". In recent years, the two have met at some meetings and have shaken hands in a friendly manner, but this is indeed the first time that they have chatted on the same stage in such a high-profile manner.
As Fu Sheng said, there is a lot behind the two people's live broadcastAI Big ModelBecause of this, the theme of this live broadcast dialogue is "Every company has its own big model". When Fu Sheng promoted this live broadcast on Weibo, he also said, "Some people commented that between men, there is nothing that a big model can't solve." However, as of press time, the Weibo post is no longer visible.
AI big models are the focus of Fu Sheng and Zhou Hongyi. In June last year, 360 Zhinao big model was officially released; in September, 360 Zhinao big model was open to the public; in December, 360 Zhinao passed the national big model standard compliance test and was called the first in the country.The firstThe large model of native security.
Zhou Hongyi believes that the U.S. industry has gone "all in on AI" and is looking for incremental markets through AI innovation. He is a staunch developer and calls on more companies to establish "AI faith" and go all in on AI innovation.
Fu Sheng has also mentioned "All in AI" many times. His Orion Star is a service robot company with AI technology research and development as its core. Last year, it launched the large model application "Juyan" to provide corporate customers with a one-stop solution of large model consulting and AI services. Recently, Cheetah Mobile announced that the company will increase capital in Orion Star through its holding and wholly-owned subsidiaries, with a total capital increase of approximately 369 million yuan.
According to public information, on January 21, Fu Sheng will hold a press conference for the launch of the Orion Starry Sky model, announcing an enterprise-level open source large model base, as well as fine-tuning models adapted to multiple scenarios. His live broadcast with Zhou Hongyi was conducted during this press conference. It seems that the conversation between the two was also intended to build momentum for the Orion Starry Sky launch conference.
From another perspective, Fu Sheng and Zhou Hongyi's current situation is also very different from the past.
In recent years, due to changes in the internal and external environment, Cheetah Mobile's operations have deteriorated. In the first half of 2023, Cheetah Mobile's total revenue fell by 55% year-on-year to 337 million yuan, and its net loss attributable to shareholders was 277 million yuan, an increase of about 282% year-on-year, and its net loss under non-U.S. generally accepted accounting principles was 259.3 million yuan. According to statistics, in the past five years, Cheetah Mobile's stock price has fallen by more than 90%, and its market value has decreased by more than 4 billion US dollars compared to the peak of its stock price.
As ChatGPT becomes popular and triggers a new round of AI craze, Orion Star carries the new development hope of Cheetah Mobile. Fu Sheng needs traffic to build momentum for his own products.
Zhou Hongyi, on the other hand, has become much gentler after experiencing numerous industry battles in his early years, his old partner Qi Xiangdong's departure, and his marriage changes. Netizens even joked that he has changed from a "big gun in red" to a "big uncle in red." He talked about entrepreneurship with Zhang Chaoyang, asked Dong Yuhui and Yu Minhong for advice on live streaming, and responded calmly to public criticism from internet celebrity Cheng Qian. Many people said that "Zhou Hongyi has changed."
The first public conversation between the two after their reconciliation has already attracted a lot of attention and traffic. As for the specific content of the conversation, we will wait and see on January 21st.