A bitter feud between two leading Chinese web firms has prompted Beijing to step in after one of them threatened to deny its service to the other firm's users, state media reported Wednesday.

Tencent announced last week that its popular instant messaging service QQ would no longer function on computers using products of security software developer Qihoo 360.

Qihoo 360 has in turn moved to block off Tencent from its software in retaliation, according to Chinese media reports.

Li Yizhong, minister of industry and information technology, has ripped the two firms as "immoral" and "irresponsible", adding that top leaders were aware of the matter and want the dispute resolved swiftly, the China Daily said.

"Entrepreneurs should have basic morals" and always look after consumers' interests, Li said in an interview with the newspaper Tuesday.

The dispute began in September when Tencent encouraged users to download its upgraded security product.

Qihoo 360 subsequently accused QQ of trying to scan its users' personal data and it issued tools to block QQ components.

Tencent said QQ had more than 600 million active user accounts while Qihoo 360 boasted more than 300 million, the China Daily said.

The flap has triggered mounting criticism from China's huge online population, the world's largest with at least 420 million people using the Internet.

"The fight looks ridiculous and childish. But those suffering are indeed users like us," said one blog entry on Chinese portal Sina.com.

It accused the two companies of "kidnapping users in pursuit of their own interests."

earlier related report
Pirate Chinese versions of Japan e-books sold online:reports
Tokyo (AFP) Nov 10, 2010 - Unauthorised Chinese versions of popular Japanese novels, including works by best-selling author Haruki Murakami, have been sold as e-books on Apple's online store, Japanese media have reported.

Digital versions of Murakami's "1Q84" and of crime novels by Keigo Higashino were being sold without the authors' permission for a few hundred yen (a few dollars) each, the Kyodo News agency and the Asahi daily reported.

Higashino, who has not allowed any of his works to be marketed in digital format, told Kyodo: "Of those (books) translated into Chinese, tens of my works appear to have been converted into digital books illegally."

"As a copyright holder, I have asked Apple to delete them and am waiting for its response."

The Taiwanese publisher of an authorised Chinese translation of "1Q84" has denied any involvement and said that one of the e-books sold on Apple's App Store was a pirated version of its translation, Kyodo said.

The App Store sells digital books that can be viewed on Apple's popular iPhone and iPad mobile devices, among other digital content.

Murakami's three-volume "1Q84", of which the first two volumes were released in Japan in May 2009, became instant bestsellers there and have since been translated into Korean and Chinese.

Murakami, 61, has often been mentioned as a Nobel literature prize contender, and his novels have drawn international acclaim.

His works have been translated into almost 40 languages, include the titles "Norwegian Wood," "Kafka on the Shore" and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle".