Tencent QQ – An Emotional Sustenance

I read an article about social network sites written by Boyd and Ellison. The authors elaborated the definition, history and scholarship of social network sites through analyzing some particular social network site, such as SixDegree, Friendster and Facebook. Social network sites (SNS) grow dramatically since Internet developing and users’ demands increasing, as a result, Social network sites become a big part of daily life today because of its accessibility and interest (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). It reminds me of the development of Tencent QQ, which is the most popular social network site with the largest number of users in China Mainland (McLeod, 2006). Tencent QQ is definitely a user-oriented social network site, it combines almost attractive features of social network into one site. I do not judge the copy complains that Tencent QQ received from its opponents, the purpose of blog is letting you know how Tencent QQ survived in competitive social network industry and becomes one of the most successful social network sites in China.

Tencent QQ was inspired by ICQ (I seek you) and firstly launched in China Mainland in 1998. The logo of Tencent is an overweight but rather cute penguin wearing red scarf. It was promoted as a free instant messenger, users can search people according to QQ account and chat with each other through client side. Tencent QQ attracted approximately one million users at the very start because it provided people a totally new online chat model with low limitation and high accessibility (Tencent Enterprise Archives, 2013). However, an increasing number of early Tencent QQ adopters quit from 1999 due to they found nothing to do but chat. Tencent QQ suffered a heavy loss. It is similar with the failure of SixDegree, which mentioned in Boyd and Ellison’s book. The blankness of early-stage social network site killed the SixDegree, because its users complained there was very little thing to do after add new friends (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Thus it can be seen that attractiveness is essential to a social network site. Under that circumstance, Tencent QQ started to develop additional entertainment applications based on original version. From 2001 to 2005, it successively launched QQ Game, QQ space, QQ music and some other entertainment applications. Tencent QQ users are able to experience diversity of recreations in just one social network site. In addition, Tencent QQ paid attention on some really detailed things that may fascinate users. For instance, it designed various of personalized avatars for users, it is easy for users to tell friends’ online status by different status of avatars. Except that, Tencent QQ server will always retain the added friends while users changing devices. Also, it created the QQ space for users to share photos, journals and mood with friends. More importantly, the additional face to face talking function of Tencent QQ provides users a chance to talk with friends and families from distantly. As an oversea student, Tencent QQ makes me feel close to my family while I am thousands of miles away. Consequently, these efforts assisted Tencent QQ in attracting over 300 million users and increasing business growth approximately 1398% from 2001 to 2005 (Tencent Enterprise Archives, 2013). Up to this day, there is no detailed data shows the accurate number of Tencent QQ users, but to almost of the Chinese Internet users, logging on Tencent QQ is the first thing after starting the computer.   Tencent QQ believes that users’ demands are like the essence of life: subtle, dull but need intensive care.

The development history of Tencent QQ likes a fairy tale, gains great success after hitting the bottom. However, the success of Tencent QQ is not an accident, expect its unyielding spirit, Tencent QQ pays close attention on users. It changes itself into an emotional sustenance rather than a profitable social network provider and takes care of users subtly, which is the key reason that why Tencent QQ obtians the solid users foundation and gains success eventually.

Reference List

Boyd, D. & Ellison, N. 2007, “Social network sites: Definition, history and scholarship”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol.13, pp.210-230

McLeod, D. 2006, “QQ Attracting eyeballs”, Financial Mail, p.36, Retrieved July 30, 2007 from LexisNexis

Tencent Enterprise Archives, viewed 1^st August 2013, < http://app.tech.ifeng.com&gt;