Tencent QQ explained

QQ
Developer:Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd.
Ver Layout:stacked
Operating System:Cross-platform
Language:Simplified Chinese
Genre:Instant messaging
License:Proprietary

Tencent QQ, also known as QQ, is an instant messaging software service and web portal developed by the Chinese technology company Tencent. QQ offers services that provide online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, movies, and group and voice chat software. As of March 2023, there were 597 million monthly active QQ accounts.[1]

History

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).[2] [3] [4] [5]

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 imply "cute"). The software inherited existing functions from ICQ, and additional features such as software skins, people's images, and emoticons. QQ was first released as a "network paging" real-time communications service. Other 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.[6] Formerly, two web versions, WebQQ (full version) and WebQQ Mini (Lite version), which made use of Ajax, were available.[7] [8] Development, support, and availability of WebQQ Mini, however, has since been discontinued. On 31 July 2008, Tencent released an official client for Linux,[9] but this has not been made compatible with the Windows version and it is not capable of voice chat.

In response to competition with other instant messengers, such as Windows Live Messenger, Tencent released Tencent Messenger, which is aimed at businesses.

Membership

In 2002, Tencent stopped its free membership registration, requiring all new members to pay a fee. In 2003, however, this decision was reversed due to pressure from other instant messaging services such as Windows Live Messenger and Sina UC.Tencent currently offers a premium membership scheme, where premium members enjoy features such as QQ mobile, ringtone downloads, and SMS sending/receiving. In addition, Tencent offers "Diamond" level memberships. Currently, there are seven diamond schemes available:

QQ Coin

The QQ Coin is a virtual currency used by QQ users to "purchase" QQ related items for their avatar and blog. QQ Coins are obtained either by purchase (one coin for one RMB) or by using the mobile phone service. Due to the popularity of QQ among young people in China, QQ Coins are accepted by online vendors in exchange for "real" merchandise such as small gifts.[10] This has raised concerns of replacing (and thus "inflating") real currency in these transactions.

The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, tried to crack down on QQ Coins due to people using QQ Coins in exchange for real world goods.[11] [12] However, this only caused the value of QQ coins to rise as more and more third-party vendors started to accept them.[13] Tencent claims the QQ Coin is a mere regular commodity, and is, therefore, not a currency.[14]

Q Zone

See main article: Q Zone. Qzone is a social networking website based in China which was created by Tencent in 2005.[15] Q Zone is a personal blog for QQ users. It can be set as a public page or a private friend-only page. Users can upload diaries and share photos.

QQ International

Windows

In 2009, QQ began to expand its services internationally with its QQ International client for Windows distributed through a dedicated English-language portal.[16]

QQ International offers non-Mandarin speakers the opportunity to use most of the features of its Chinese counterpart to get in touch with other QQ users via chat, VoIP, and video calls, and it provides a non-Mandarin interface to access Qzone, Tencent's social network. The client supports English, French, Spanish, German, Korean, Japanese and Traditional Chinese.

One of the main features of QQ International is the optional and automatic machine translation in all chats.

Android

An Android version of QQ International was released in September 2013.[17] The client's interface is in English, French, Spanish, German, Korean, Japanese and Traditional Chinese. In addition to text messaging, users can send each other images, videos, and audio media messages. Moreover, users can share multimedia content with all contacts through the client's Qzone interface.

The live translation feature is available for all incoming messages and supports up to 18 languages.

iOS

QQ International for iPhone and iOS devices was released at the end of 2013,[18] fully equivalent to its Android counterpart.

Partnerships

In India, Tencent has partnered with ibibo[19] to bring services such as chat, mail and game to the developing Indian internet sphere.

In Vietnam, Tencent has struck a deal with VinaGame[20] to bring the QQ Casual Gaming portal as well as the QQ Messenger as an addition to the already thriving Vietnamese gaming communities.

In the United States, Tencent has partnered with AOL to bring QQ Games as a contender in the US social gaming market. Launched in 2007,[21] QQ Games came bundled with the AIM installer, and competed with AOL's own games.com to provide a gaming experience for the AIM user base.

Web QQ

Tencent launched its web-based QQ formally on 15 September 2009, the latest version of which being 3.0. Rather than solely a web-based IM, WebQQ 3.0 functions more like its own operating system, with a desktop in which web applications can be added.

Social network website

In 2009, Tencent launched Xiaoyou (校友, 'schoolmate'), its first social network website. In mid-2010, Tencent changed direction and replaced Xiaoyou with Pengyou (朋友, 'friends'), trying to establish a more widespread network, to which extant QQ users could be easily redirected, hence giving Pengyou a major advantage over its competitors.[22] Tencent's social network Qzone is linked to in the International and native versions of QQ.

Open source and cross-platform clients

Using reverse engineering, open source communities have come to understand the QQ protocol better and have attempted to implement client core libraries compatible with more user-friendly clients, free of advertisements. Most of these clients are cross-platform, so they are usable on operating systems which the official client does not support. However, these implementations had only a subset of functions of the official client and therefore were limited in features. Furthermore, QQ's parent company, Tencent, has over successive versions modified the QQ protocol to the extent that it can no longer be supported by most, and perhaps any, of the third-party implementations that were successful in the past (some of which are listed below). As of 2009, none of the developers of third-party clients have publicized any plans to restore QQ support.

Merchandise

Tencent has taken advantage of the popularity of the QQ brand and has set up many Q-Gen stores selling QQ branded merchandise such as bags, watches, clothing as well as toy penguins.

Related characteristics

Controversies and criticisms

Coral QQ

Coral QQ, a modification of Tencent QQ, is another add-on for the software, providing free access to some of the services and blocking Tencent's advertisements. In 2006, Tencent filed a copyright lawsuit against Chen Shoufu (aka Soft), the author of Coral QQ, after his distribution of a modified Tencent QQ was ruled illegal. Chen then published his modification as a separate add-on. On 16 August 2007, Chen was detained again for allegedly making profits off of his ad-blocking add-on.[25] The case resulted in a three-year prison sentence for Shoufu.[26]

Dispute with Qihoo 360

See main article: 360 v. Tencent. In 2010, Chinese anti-virus company, Qihoo 360, analyzed the QQ protocol and accused QQ of automatically scanning users' computers and uploading their personal information to QQ's servers without the users' consent. In response, Tencent called 360 a malware and denied users of installing 360 access to some of the QQ's services. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information reprimanded both companies for "improper competition" and ordered them to come to an agreement.[27]

Government surveillance

Some observers have criticized QQ's compliance in the Chinese government's Internet surveillance and censorship.[28] A 2013 report by Reporters Without Borders specifically mentioned QQ as allowing authorities to monitor online conversations for keywords or phrases and track participants by their user number.[29]

Adware controversy

The Chinese version of QQ makes use of embedded advertisements. Older versions of the client have been branded as malicious adware by some antivirus and anti-spyware vendors.[30] [31] [32]

Both the Chinese and International versions of QQ had been tested in 2013.[33] Currently it is identified as malware by DrWeb, Zillya, NANO-Antivirus, and VBA32 give positive results, most of which identify it as a trojan.[34]

Security

On March 6, 2015, QQ scored 2 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard. It received points for having communications encrypted in transit and for having a recent independent security audit. It lost points because communications are not end-to-end encrypted, users can not verify contacts' identities, past messages are not secure if the encryption keys are stolen (i.e. the service does not provide forward secrecy), the code is not open to independent review (i.e. the code is not open-source), and the security design is not properly documented.[35]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 腾讯公布二零二三年第一季业绩 . . 5 June 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230529045918/https://static.www.tencent.com/uploads/2023/05/17/2a29b622f5f47130fd062e2299b4635b.pdf . 29 May 2023 . Chinese . 17 May 2023.
  2. Web site: Mair. Victor. A New Morpheme in Mandarin. Language Log. 2011-04-26. 2012-04-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20120319065128/http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3111. 2012-03-19. live.
  3. Web site: What is QQ?. 31 January 2011. qWhatIs.com. 2012-04-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20120531222159/http://www.qwhatis.com/what-is-qq/. 2012-05-31. live.
  4. Web site: McLaughlin. Ryan. Understanding Chinese Web site names. Ryan-McLaughlin.com. 2009-04-21. 2012-04-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20120622062730/http://www.ryan-mclaughlin.com/blog/the-tech-dynasty/understanding-chinese-web-site-names/. 2012-06-22. live.
  5. Web site: Jucha. Nicolas. QQ – China's instant messenger. gbtimes. 2012-09-01. 2012-04-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20130607094154/http://gbtimes.com/focus/science-technology/qq-chinas-instant-messenger. 2013-06-07. dead.
  6. Web site: im.qq.com/qq/mac/ . im.qq.com . 2011-01-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101121214310/http://im.qq.com/qq/mac/ . 2010-11-21 . live .
  7. Web site: WebQQ . webqq.qq.com . 2011-01-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100210125202/http://webqq.qq.com/ . 2010-02-10 . live .
  8. Web site: WebQQ Mini . w.qq.com . 2011-01-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110715134423/http://w.qq.com/ . 2011-07-15 . live .
  9. Web site: QQ for Linux . im.qq.com . 2011-01-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110313092126/http://im.qq.com/qq/linux/ . 2011-03-13 . live .
  10. Web site: QQ: China's New Coin of the Realm?. Fowler. Geoffrey A.. Qin. Juying. 30 March 2007. The Wall Street Journal. 10 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170822163537/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB117519670114653518. 22 August 2017. live.
  11. Web site: People's Daily Online - Central Bank alert on "virtual money" . English.people.com.cn . 2007-01-12 . 2011-01-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100916192748/http://english.people.com.cn/200701/12/eng20070112_340681.html . 2010-09-16 . live .
  12. Web site: Is the Libra digital coin just Facebook's version of Tencent's QQ coin?. Abacus. 19 June 2019. 2020-03-15. 2019-12-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20191207185936/https://www.abacusnews.com/big-guns/libra-digital-coin-just-facebooks-version-tencents-qq-coin/article/3015226. live.
  13. Web site: Tencent created QQ Coin long before Facebook's Libra. Silva. Matthew De. Quartz. 11 July 2019 . en. 2020-03-15. 2021-01-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20210105195256/https://qz.com/1663249/chinas-tencent-launched-qq-coin-before-long-facebooks-libra-cryptocurrency/. live.
  14. Web site: Virtual currency requires tough new regulations . News.xinhuanet.com . 2007-02-12 . 2011-01-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111220173539/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-02/12/content_5730970.htm . 2011-12-20 . dead .
  15. Web site: Buche . Ivy . Cantale . Salvatore . How Tencent became the world's most valuable social network firm – with barely any advertising . The Conversation . 18 January 2018 . 25 July 2021 . en . 25 July 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210725050943/https://theconversation.com/how-tencent-became-the-worlds-most-valuable-social-network-firm-with-barely-any-advertising-90334 . live .
  16. Web site: QQ International Official Homepage. Tencent. 2011-01-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20121206085430/http://imqq.com/. 2012-12-06. live.
  17. Web site: QQ International for Android. Tencent. 2012-10-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20131103043430/https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tencent.mobileqqi&hl=en. 2013-11-03. live.
  18. Web site: QQ International for iOS. Tencent. 2014-01-15. https://web.archive.org/web/20140208121621/https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qq-international/id710380093?mt=8. 2014-02-08. live.
  19. Web site: Anthony. Regina. Ibibo will sell 50% to Tencent Holdings. HT Media. 2014-04-25. 2008-06-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20140427001022/http://www.livemint.com/Industry/rkOTRiFd3kD3BTLM3Q5WIO/Ibibo-will-sell-50-to-Tencent-Holdings.html. 2014-04-27. live.
  20. Web site: harryd844.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/zing-chat-prepares-to-sword-yahoo-chat/ . 29 October 2007 . Harryd844.wordpress.com . 2011-01-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110124015023/http://harryd844.wordpress.com/2007/10/29/zing-chat-prepares-to-sword-yahoo-chat/ . 2011-01-24 . live .
  21. Web site: www.digitaltrends.com/apple/aol-rolls-out-aim-65/ . Www.digitaltrends.com . 2007-10-03 . 2011-01-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170814220525/https://www.digitaltrends.com/apple/aol-rolls-out-aim-65/ . 2017-08-14 . live .
  22. http://tradingstocks.me/renren-ipos-biggest-hurdle-might-be-pengyou/ RenRen IPO’s biggest hurdle might be PengYou
  23. Web site: Pidgin Developer Website. 2011-09-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20111019072539/http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/13193. 2011-10-19. live.
  24. Web site: Miranda IM - Addons - MirandaQQ2 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070219141747/http://addons.miranda-im.org/details.php?action=viewfile&id=3348 . dead . 2007-02-19 . Addons.miranda-im.org . 2010-12-25 . 2011-01-14 .
  25. News: Debate Over IM Add-Ons in China . The Wall Street Journal . Juliet . Ye . 2007-11-29 . 2017-08-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170809173016/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119629787148507282 . 2017-08-09 . live .
  26. News: Coral QQ Infringement Case Ends With Prison For Chen Shoufu . ChinaTechNews . 2008-11-26 . 2021-01-25 . 2020-09-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200928145720/https://www.chinatechnews.com/2008/11/26/8093-coral-qq-infringement-case-ends-with-prison-for-chen-shoufu . live .
  27. News: Beijing probes Tencent and Qihoo 360. Kathrin. Hille. Beijing. 2010-11-21. 2011-01-09. Financial Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20110906011600/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e0e12040-f5ab-11df-99d6-00144feab49a.html. 2011-09-06. live.
  28. News: China's Censors Tackle and Trip Over the Internet. The New York Times. Michael. Wines. Sharon. Lafraniere. Jonathan. Ansfield. 2010-04-07. 2017-02-25. https://web.archive.org/web/20190222000346/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/world/asia/08censor.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&ref=technology. 2019-02-22. live.
  29. Web site: China - The Enemies of Internet. https://web.archive.org/web/20130316125952/http://surveillance.rsf.org/en/china/. dead. 2013-03-16. Reporters Without Borders. 2012-04-14.
  30. Web site: Spyware Research Center - Tencent QQ . Tenebril . 2004-10-27 . 2011-01-14 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101229113529/http://www.tenebril.com/src/info.php?id=441301950 . 2010-12-29 .
  31. Web site: Tencent QQ . Ca.com . 2004-08-16 . 2011-01-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071017095717/http://ca.com/us/securityadvisor/pest/pest.aspx?id=453083549 . 2007-10-17.
  32. Web site: Remove Tencent QQ - Spyware / Adware Uninstall Instruction . Securemost.com . 2011-01-14 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100719133746/http://www.securemost.com/articles/rm_tencent_qq.htm . 2010-07-19 .
  33. Web site: Virustotal Report for QQ 2013. Virustotal.com. 2013-10-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20131031230713/https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/9200a4eecf93f07855c90cbdefe44620bed8b04a3720d09cee69247382282a0e/analysis/. 2013-10-31. live. Web site: Virustotal Report for QQ International. Virustotal.com. 2013-10-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20131031225515/https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/e6ea06f11f7eee56a67f7471ea1a5925209550dc3beb0959228e98b94c5b5f8d/analysis/. 2013-10-31. live.
  34. Web site: Virustotal Report for QQ 2020. Virustotal.com. 2020-05-24. 2013-10-31. https://web.archive.org/web/20131031230713/https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/9200a4eecf93f07855c90cbdefe44620bed8b04a3720d09cee69247382282a0e/analysis/. live. Web site: Virustotal Report for QQ International. Virustotal.com. 2020-05-24. 2013-10-31. https://web.archive.org/web/20131031225515/https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/e6ea06f11f7eee56a67f7471ea1a5925209550dc3beb0959228e98b94c5b5f8d/analysis/. live.
  35. Web site: Secure Messaging Scorecard. Which apps and tools actually keep your messages safe?. Electronic Frontier Foundation. 4 November 2014. 28 January 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20161115054343/https://www.eff.org/secure-messaging-scorecard. 15 November 2016. dead.

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