The number of social media and applications designed to facilitate communications between people who are very distant from each other is always growing. There are numerous platforms in the world, each with its own peculiarities, which are used daily and on which messages and contents of all kinds are conveyed. Among the best known ones, especially in China, there is QQ.
QQ is a social media platform and instant messaging app that promises to compete with Facebook and other popular social networks. It is very similar to WeChat, with which it competes for a large share of the market and audience. Its functions, which are numerous and satisfy different needs, have particularly attracted the attention of the xez generations , who use the social network for several hours a day.
The QQ application is especially popular in China , where it is the most used messaging service. Although for the moment it has shown that it has difficulty crossing the Chinese borders, it is improving through continuous updates in order to also conquer an international audience and establish itself on the market and on the web.
QQ, the story of China’s instant messaging platform
QQ is an instant messaging platform that has distant origins. Its first version was launched in February 1999 , but the idea was born in Shenzhen in November 1998. The original name is OICQ, which stands for ‘ Oh, I seek you’ .
The name was soon changed due to a case of homonymy which could have caused legal problems for the company that owns the service, Tencent Holdings Limited which still owns the platform today. Today it is known by all as QQ .
If for many years it was a simple application for sending messages, QQ has changed dramatically and has become a complex platform, with many features that attract a large number of extremely young and active users. An estimated 300,000 a day are connected simultaneously on Chinese territory alone.
QQ has become extremely important in China, overtaking Skype, MSN and Yahoo in terms of diffusion and fame
In the West, the application is still not widespread. Most of the people accessing it are foreigners residing in China to communicate with local people, students who want to improve their linguistic understanding and people who need to use it to download some applications or to be able to play Chinese video games.
To encourage the registration of foreign users, Tencent has thought of a simpler version of the application and has created QQ International, available for mobile devices equipped with Android or iOS or for computers. To be able to use it, a quick registration must be made by entering personal data such as nickname, password and telephone number.
QQ features: entertainment and information for generations X and Z
QQ is among the most popular platforms in China. To achieve this success, the Tencent company has worked hard, trying to improve the application year after year and always offering new services and possibilities to registered users.
Just like all social networks, QQ allows people to share information and materials with their contacts. They can publish different types of content on the platform , such as photographs, videos and files of multiple formats.
On QQ you can find daily news on topics such as current affairs, news, music, art, culture, weather, finance, entertainment, sport and much more. People can go shopping and find all the information they need directly on the platform.
Additional entertainment services have been developed , such as online board games or games intended exclusively for children, spaces for listening to music or viewing videos and the possibility of downloading ringtones for smartphones and mobile devices.
QQ started out as an instant messaging service and continues to do so. Users can send text messages, video, voice and audio recordings.
QQ features: socialization in focus
The platform allows for the creation of groups in which multiple people can participate. They are the ideal solution to allow a large number of users who have common interests to chat and exchange messages on a given topic.
To facilitate conversations even between those who do not speak the same language and who come from different countries, QQ has provided an effective simultaneous message translation service and supports more than 50 languages. There is also a streaming feature that allows you to broadcast live video.
The platform turns into a dating application for all those who want to start new relationships, find their soul mate or even meet users in real life thanks to the dating service.
QQ competes with WeChat, the world-famous Chinese social network and instant messaging app. Although the two solutions are very similar, they have some important differences. On QQ you can use a nickname and keep your identity hidden. To sign up for WeChat, however, you need to enter your real name.
