This is what QQ looks like as a Facebook app.
With 798 million monthly active users, Tencent’s (HKG:0700.HK – News) instant messenger QQ is by far the most used social network in China. Some of its users live abroad and Tencent now hopes to increase that number even further by launching QQ Chat for Facebook.
The new QQ Chat for Facebook not only allows users to chat on QQ, but is also available in six languages and offers built-in translations from/to Chinese, Spanish and Japanese. It’s not the first overseas venture for QQ and its iconic penguin mascot, as Tencent released a business-focused QQ International app for Windows and Mac back in 2010. But this new Facebook web app seems to be more focused on fun and cross-border socializing. Mel Yin, head of IM at Tencent, says that “this is the first cross-platform QQ client for English speakers” because it’s a web app.
According to the new app, QQ Chat for Facebook, 4,400 people have already used it, which sounds like a pretty good start. With Facebook blocked in China, hundreds of millions of Chinese QQ users will have to stick to their desktop or mobile apps – but at least some of their foreign friends might now be more willing to join in.
In the age of mobile-only messaging apps, there is certainly not much demand for old-style IM services. However, Tencent has both covered, boasting more than 300 million users of its Whatsapp-like app WeChat. Many of these are also outside China, with good success in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Tencent hopes WeChat can become China’s first global social media success story.
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