Tencent QQ
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Tencent Holdings Limited |
|---|---|
| Initial release | February 1999 |
| Stable release |
8.1 (Microsoft Windows) / January 19, 2016
|
| Development status | Active |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Available in | Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish |
| Type | Instant messaging |
| License | Proprietary (adware) |
| Alexa rank |  10 (Global, February 2017[update]) |
| Website |
Official portal Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese International |
Tencent QQ, popularly known as QQ, is an instant messaging software service developed by a Chinese company named Tencent Holdings Limited. QQ also offers a variety of services, including online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, movies, and group and voice chat. The logo and mascot is a small penguin wearing a red scarf.
At the end of June 2016, there are 899 million active QQ accounts. A peak number of over 200 million simultaneous online QQ users was recorded as of April 2014.
Tencent QQ was first released in China in February 1999 under the name of OICQ ("Open ICQ", a reference to the early IM service ICQ).
After the threat of a trademark infringement lawsuit by the AOL-owned ICQ, the product's name was changed to QQ (with "Q" and "QQ" used to stand for the word "cute"). The software inherited existing functions from ICQ, with additional features such as software skins, people's images, and motions. QQ was first released as a "" real-time communications service. Other mainly free features were later added, such as chatrooms, games, personal avatars (similar to "Meego" in MSN), online storage, and Internet dating services.
The official client runs on Microsoft Windows and a beta public version was launched for Mac OS X version 10.4.9 or newer. Formerly, two web versions, WebQQ (full version) and WebQQ Mini (Lite version), which made use of Ajax, were available. Development, support, and availability of WebQQ Mini, however, have since been discontinued. On 31 July 2008, Tencent released an official client for Linux, but this has not since been kept in step with the Windows version and it is not capable of voice chat.
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