Kingsoft announced that until the end of this month it will provide Chinese netizens with free online virus scans through China Telecom and ChinaVnet.

Kingsoft says it has prepared 40 high performance servers across the country and is using a "very large amount" of bandwidth to make the marketing program successful.

According to Wang Feng, vice president of the company, Kingsoft's anti-virus engine has been re-designed and new products will be launched in March 2005.

The company says it is pleased with results in recent months that show online sales of Kingsoft's anti-virus service has reached almost the same level with that of its software sold in offline retail shops. This may account for why the company is determined to switch its three major services, including anti-virus software, to the Internet.