Qihoo 360 will not release instant messaging software to compete with Tencent QQ, Zhou Hongyi, chairman and CEO of Qihoo 360, said on his micro blog Monday.

"360 has no plan to set foot in the IM (instant messaging) business, and plagiarism is not the work style of 360," Zhou said on his micro blog.

Rumors spread on the Internet accusing 360 of planning to launch its own IM software to compete with QQ, National Business Daily reported on Tuesday.

The rumors are that 360's program is almost a duplicate of QQ, the newspaper reported.

The program can realize real-time message transferring, video group talking, virus detection and other tasks, said the report, adding that the screenshot of the new program was uploaded on the Web.

But Zhou said that the screenshot was faked.

He added that unlike Tencent, his company will only develop new software.

The war of words between 360 and Tencent was triggered on Sept 27 when 360, an Internet safeguard provider, proclaimed that "certain" IM software is spying on its subscribers' personal information. 360 later released a free privacy protector targeting Tencent QQ's automatic pop-up dialog boxes, Netease reported in September.

The verbal skirmish escalated in late October when Tencent, Kingsoft, Baidu, Maxthon and Keniu posted a joint statement online accusing 360 of unfair competition.