It remains to be seen if QQi will indeed just stay a community platform for China-related topics or if Tencent will eventually try to compete with global social networks, foremost Facebook. Those familiar with Tencents history will remember that also domestically it first was the IM product that was used to penetrate the market before adding more web and mobile services such as QZone, which eventually developed into China’s largest online social network. According to the press release the service will be integrated into the existing information portal and seamlessly synchronized with the QQi IM. The far more momentous news compared to the QQi 1.0 launch is however that at the same time Tencent also announced the coming launch of a new English language SNS as early as January 2011.

Tencent announces launch of English language Online Social Network in Q1/2011

The service has already partnered with a range of large local partners, such as the travel portal or local news paper and will in the future integrate more third party apps from local and global players. Apart from its core IM functionality, QQi offers its users a variety of free apps to explore anything China related from job opportunities, news or language learning tools, to events, travel deals, directories and videos. Competition for MSN and other international IMs?Īccording to Marc Violo QQi is not looking to compete with existing multilanguage IM’s such as Microsoft MSN or Skype but aims to target the sofar unserved niche of cross-border/cross-language communication between China and the rest of the world.

Im qq international