Who’s jumping on China’s cloud computing bandwagon next? It looks like Qihoo 360, one of China’s top search solution providers, is going to be the next to make the leap. What’s on offer from the company? A full suite of mobile browsers supporting both iOS and Android-based tablets and smartphones- now with cloud computing technology. Let’s take a look at the features:

Cloud-Based Bookmarks and Favorites: Ever been frustrated when you’re using a smartphone or a remote computer and can’t access your index of quick links that you work with regularly? In China, where URLs just as frequently use code numbers as names, this becomes even more important- a good bar of favorites and bookmarks is as essential as an index of phone numbers is for your cell phone. With this feature, your favorites are all stored on the cloud, so you can access them immediately from any of your devices.

Built-in Web-based App Store: A store for iOS and Android apps is directly integrated into the browser itself, and utilizes market data taken from your social networking profiles to determine top applications that suit your interests and needs.

Gesture-based Browsing: You don’t even need to tap icons anymore; the browser can automatically move between pages with a flick of the fingers across the screen.

The browsers also include most features integrated into high-end browsers today- multi-tab browsing; integrated address and search bar; and instant shortcuts to top Chinese websites already come built-in to the browser.

But why is Qihoo 360 going mobile?

Cloud Advantage

Qihoo 360’s browser and security software currently sees use by nearly 200 million internet users throughout China, making the company’s software some of the most commonly seen on Chinese computers, and it’s software user base the third largest among indigenous Chinese software producers. As such, with China potentially “leapfrogging” straight into the mobile and cloud services era, with many people who have never owned a computer jumping straight to smartphones, going mobile only makes sense.

"We are very excited to further expand our mobile product offerings, particularly with the browser acting as the key access point for massive Internet users," said Hongyi Zhou, Qihoo 360’s CEO. "Given our leading market position in PC browsers, we are confident that we will be able to convert a large portion of our over 200 million PC-based browser users to our mobile browsers with advanced features such as cloud based favorites and gesture browsing. This is a very important step for us to gain a strong position in the rapidly growing Chinese mobile internet market and ultimately build a truly multi-device, cross-OS Internet platform."

Security Advantage

Qihoo 360’s security expertise- the company’s security software is by far the most popular in China, and sees use on nearly 385 million systems- also gives the company an advantage moving into cloud applications. With security issues being one of the foremost concerns of companies and users going into the cloud, Qihoo’s reputation and experience seems to give the company a natural edge in reassuring users that their applications are safe and secure.

What’s next for Qihoo 360’s cloud future? With their new mobile browsers, the 360 Desktop Open API released this summer, and ongoing developments in internet security, there’s sure to be plenty. We’ll keep you abreast of what comes out of this Chinese internet leader in the coming year.