What is QQ?

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What is QQ?
QQ or Tencent QQ is a popular instant messaging program in Mainland China. Statistics show that simultaneous online users have exceeded the 100 million counts. QQ is what most people generally call the instant messenger but its actual name is Tencent QQ, which is managed by the Tencent Holdings Limited. Tencent Holdings Limited is partly owned by Naspers, a leading multinational media group.

QQ is a very popular site and it actually ranked ninth in Alexa’s overall internet rankings. It was like a storm hitting China because since QQ entered Chinese households, it became an instant success. It gained instant popularity maybe due to its features other than the chat program. QQ also developed and offered several sub features such as ring tone downloads virtual pets and various games.

QQ was originally named as OICQ, which stands for Open ICQ. It was actually patterned from the previously existing instant message service or (IMS). ICQ is not actually an acronym that stands for specific words or something. However, ICQ was coined from the phrase ‘I seek you’. The sound of the phrase was the same when you pronounce the acronym ICQ.

The history of QQ can be traced back from the time its owner was founded. It was in November 11, 1998 when Ma Huateng founded Tencent Inc. in Shenzen, China. However, the QQ was officially launched in 1999, month of February. It was the year 2003 when Tencent bought the QQ.com domain. The business went strong along the years and the company went on initial public offering on July 16, 2004.

QQ was initially released as network paging. Network paging means communications service in real time. Development went on until several features were added and the great thing is that most features are offered free. Features such as chatrooms, personal avatars, games, internet dating services and online file storage attracted many online users. These extra features built the success of QQ.

Moreover, the interface used by QQ was very user-friendly. Users find the navigation easy to use. QQ was very popular among teenage internet surfers. This made QQ the most well-liked real-time communications platform in China. Tencent is actively updating their services. Periodically, the company releases versions of QQ developed specifically to correspond to an event such as the Chinese New Year. Tencent also had a version released to coincide with the Olympics.

Officially, QQ runs on machines running Microsoft Windows and later on, a version for Mac OS X version was also released. There are also versions for the web known as Web QQ or the full version and Web QQ Mini, which is the lite version. Both versions are run using Ajax, a programming language used to create interactive web applications. Later on, a version for Linux was release but was discontinued.

When Microsoft released Windows Live Messenger, Tencent responded by releasing their own Tencent Messenger. The main targets were the business people. Tencent gave options for being premium members giving them added features. QQ also released beta version for the 3rd edition of Symbian S60.

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