Kingsoft (Chinese: 金山软件; pinyin: jīnshān ruǎnjiàn; literally: "Gold Mountain Software") is a Chinese software company that has research and development centers in Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, and Zhuhai. The company has historically focused on development for the internet and Microsoft Windows systems. They also created an independent mobile internet subsidiary known as Cheetah Mobile, the world's leading mobile utility and content app developer, and has worked on security software products, most recently moving towards internet-based applications, such as Kingsoft Kuaipan (a free cloud storage application running on multiple platforms).
Kingsoft was founded in 1988 by the JinShan company located in Hong Kong. JinShan is a manufacturer of IBM PCs and was founded in 1973. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kingsoft researched and developed word processors and other office applications, such as its flagship product, Word Processing System 1.0, which launched in 1989. Today, the latest version, now called WPS Office 2016 is a freeware office suite which includes WPS Writer, WPS Presentation and WPS Spreadsheets. Kingsoft has established collaborative relationships with Dell, Intel and IBM.
1988: Pak Kwan Kau (求伯君) joined JinShan, participated in developing WPS (Word Processing System) and founded the subdepartment of JinShan in Shenzhen. This was when JinShan initiated involvement in the software developing area.1989: JinShan released WPS 1.0 and PUC (JianShan I Chinese character card). The JinShan I Chinese character card monopolized the printing market in China.1993: Pak Kwan Kau founded Kingsoft at Zhuhai with Zhang XuanLong's personal financial support.1994: Beijing Kingsoft department was founded.1996: SEASUN Studio was founded and released the first commercial game in China, ZhongGuanCun Revelations.1997: The RPG Jian Xia Qing Yuan was released and became the first RPG game in mainland China. PowerWord was released. WPS 97, running on Windows 95, was released.1998: Lenovo became a shareholder of Kingsoft. Kingsoft was reorganized.2000: Kingsoft invested in and built Amazon.com China. Kingsoft released Kingsoft Antivirus.2003: Beijing Kingsoft Entertainment Company was founded.2007: Kingsoft made the list of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.2008: WPS 2009, Kingsoft Antivirus 2009, and PowerWord 2009 were released.2009: Beijing Kingsoft Security Company was founded.2010: Kingsoft Antivirus became freeware.2011: The founder Pak Kwan Kau announced his retirement plan. The proposal for Jun Lei to become CEO was approved by the Board of Directors.2011: Tencent became a 15.68% shareholder in Kingsoft which is worth 892 million HKD. HongJiang Zhang became the CEO of Kingsoft.2014: Announced Cheetah Mobile and filed for an initial public offering in the United States.2014: (October) Kingsoft and Cheetah Mobile announced that they've entered into a joint operation framework agreement. Under this agreement Kingsoft will provide game content and relevant updates and Cheetah Mobile will be responsible for the operation, promotion and distribution of those games.2015: The company announced its partnership with Dropbox, a San Francisco-based cloud storage and file sharing company.WPS Office (previously known as Kingsoft Office) is an office suite of desktop applications including a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program. The latest version is WPS Office 2016.WPS Office for Android (freeware) allows users to edit, view and save documents on Android devices. It also allows users to access Google Drive, Dropbox, Box.net and other online storage websites to deal with modified documents using the WebDAV protocol.Kingsoft Internet Security 9 Plus is an anti-virus and security application designed for Internet users. It contains anti-virus, anti-malware, a vulnerability scanner and personal firewall. It finds and fixes rootkit, spyware, trojan, virus and malware infections.Kingsoft PC Doctor is a freeware Windows system optimization software which offers a Windows Registry cleaner, uninstaller and speedup features.LieBao Secure web browser integrates Google Chrome kernel with high speed and Internet Explorer kernel with compatibility. LieBao aims to let users browse web pages more securely.Kingsoft Power Word 2016 is a Chinese and English two-way machine translation application. Kingsoft Power Word Android and iOS versions have community features for end-users to practice pronunciation, as well as provide feedbacks for others.Kingsoft KuaiPan is cloud storage software running on Windows, OS X, Android and iOS platforms.