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Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in Mainland China. As of September 30, 2010, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM amounted to 636.6 million, possibly making it the world's largest online community. The number of simultaneous online QQ accounts exceeded 100 million. In October 2010, QQ.com ranked 9th overall in Alexa's internet rankings just after Twitter ranked 10th. The program is maintained by Tencent Holdings Limited, owned in part by Naspers. Since its entrance into Chinese households QQ quickly emerged as a modern cultural phenomenon, now being portrayed in popular culture. Aside from the chat program, QQ has also developed many subfeatures including games, virtual pets, ringtone downloads, etc.

Naming
The original name of QQ was OICQ ("Open ICQ"). The name was based on an already existing IMS (Internet Message Service), "ICQ".

ICQ is one of the first modern IMS programs. The acronym "ICQ" came from the fact that the letters sound like "I seek you".

History
Tencent was founded in Shenzhen, China, in 11 November 1998, by Ma Huateng. Tencent's instant messaging service platform "QQ" was formally launched in February 1999. In March 2003 Tencent was able to buy the Internet Domain QQ.com. After years of strong business growth, on July 16, 2004, Tencent Holdings Limited (SEHK 700) went public.

Development
QQ was initially developed by Tencent Inc. in February 1999. It was first released as a "Network Paging" real time communications service. Then other features were successively added such as chatrooms, games, personal avatars (similar to "Meego" in MSN), internet storage, and internet dating services. Most of these features were free. Its variety of features and easy-to-use interface made it very popular, especially among teenage users. In a few short years it was the most popular real time communications service in China.

The current version of QQ is QQ2010 beta2. Tencent periodically releases special versions of QQ to coincide with events such as the Olympics or Chinese New Year.

The official client runs on Microsoft Windows and a beta public version was launched for Mac OS X version 10.4.9 or newer. The web versions, WebQQ (full version) and WebQQ Mini (Lite version), which makes use of Ajax, are currently available. On July 31, 2008 Tencent released an official client for Linux, but this has not since been kept in step with the Windows version.

right|thumb|User Interface of Tencent Messenger In response to competition with Windows Live Messenger, Tencent released Tencent Messenger, which is targeted to business people. It also provides, in limited form, features that are only available to premium members in normal QQ.

A beta version of QQ is currently available for Symbian S60 3rd Edition.

Membership
QQ currently allows free registration for membership. In 2002, Tencent stopped its free membership registration, requiring all new members to pay a fee. However, free registration was reopened in 2003 due to pressure from other instant messaging services such as Windows Live Messenger and Sina UC. Tencent currently offers a premium membership scheme, which offers features such as QQ mobile, ringtone downloads, and SMS sending/receiving. In addition, Tencent offers "Diamond" level memberships. Currently, there are seven diamond services available:
 * Red, for the QQ Show service which features the ability to make an avatar for yourself.
 * Yellow, for the Qzone service which is similar to a blog.
 * Blue, which is for QQ games.
 * Purple, which is shared between three Tencent games, QQNana, a Korean dancing game, QQTang, an action game, extremely similar to crazy arcade, and QQSpeed, a race game.
 * Pink, for QQ pet, a small desktop game about raising a pet. So far there are 3 generations of pets. Penguin, Pig, and Bear (Beta testing).
 * Green, for QQ music, which is a software for listening to music directly from the Tencent server. Requiring no pre-download, though sometimes consuming a lot of disk space due to caching.
 * VIP, for chatting, beta testing, removing advertising, and several additional features
 * Black (recently introduced) DNF (地下城与勇士), a Tencent PVP game

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.

Controversies and criticisms
QQ has faced many criticisms and controversies. Many users complain QQ provides fewer and fewer free services and an annoying number of ads.

Dispute with Qihoo 360
China's leading anti-virus company, Qihoo 360, analyzed the QQ protocol and accused QQ of automatically scanning users' computers and of uploading their personal information to QQ's servers without users' consent. In response, Tencent called 360 itself malware and denied users with 360 installed access to some QQ services. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information reprimanded both companies for "improper competition" and ordered them to come to an accord.

Monitoring
A program distributed with QQ censors and monitors the user's behavior on the Web.

Adware classification
Because of QQ's extensive use of advertisements and processes related to ads, it has been branded as malicious adware by many anti-virus and anti-spyware vendors.

Keyword filtering
On August 2004, QQ Games began filtering keywords such as "钓鱼岛" (Diaoyu Islands) and "保钓" (Movement to protect the Diaoyu Islands). This act caused much controversy and Tencent has since lifted the filter.

QQ real group name scheme
On July 21, 2005, Tencent announced its intention to follow orders set by Shenzhen Police and enforce the requirement of real names for all the administrators and founders of QQ Groups. This caused much controversy on whether it can prevent the spread of pornographic and other indecent messages, or whether it intrudes on one's privacy. However, the difficulty of enforcement made the real name registration optional.

Resource usage
The resources required to run QQ have increased substantially since it was first released, which has caused some people to turn to third party "lite" versions.

Q coin
The Q coin is a virtual currency used by QQ users to "purchase" QQ related items for their avatar and blog. Q coins are obtained either by purchase, one coin for one RMB, or for using the mobile phone service. Due to the popularity of QQ among young Chinese, Q coins are now accepted by gradually more and more online stores and gaming sites in exchange for "real" merchandise such as small gifts, and raised the concern of replacing (and thus "inflating") real currency in these transactions. The People's Bank of China, China's central bank, says it is investigating the possibility of cracking down on Q coin, due to people using Q coins in exchange for real world goods. Tencent claims the Q coin was merely a regular commodity, and thus not a currency.

Modifications
Coral QQ, a modification of Tencent QQ, is a popular add on. While Tencent charges for some services and displays advertisement, Coral QQ provides free access to some of the services and blocks Tencent's advertisements. In 2006, Tencent filed a copyright lawsuit against Chen Shoufu (aka Soff), the author of Coral QQ, whose redistributing modified Tencent QQ was ruled illegal. Chen then published his modification as a separate add on. On August 16, 2007, Chen was detained again for allegedly making profits off his ad-blocking add on. His case is pending at Shenzhen Nanshan district court. a

QQ internationally
In addition to its release QQ messenger internationally through its IMQQ portal, in 2008, QQ began to expand its services internationally, working with partners throughout Asia and the USA.

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

In Vietnam, Tencent has struck a deal with VinaGame 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 USA, Tencent has partnered with AOL to bring QQ Games as a contender in the US social gaming market. Launched in 2007, QQ Games comes bundled with the AIM installer, and competes with AOL's own games.com to provide a gaming experience for the AIM user base.

In Italy QQ has released an Italian language version, QQITALY translated by Sonky.

Web QQ
Tencent launched its web-based QQ in 2009. The latest version is WebQQ 2.0

Open source and cross-platform clients
Using reverse engineering, open source communities have come to understand the QQ protocol better and have implemented client core libraries 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 have only a subset of the functions of the official client and therefore are more limited in features.
 * Adium, an open source multiprotocol client for Mac OS X
 * Pidgin, an open source cross-platform multiprotocol client
 * Empathy, an open source multiprotocol client designed for GNOME (also runs in other Linux environments, but does not graphically integrate well)
 * Kopete, an open source multiprotocol client designed for KDE (also runs in other Linux environments, but does not graphically integrate well)
 * Miranda IM, an open source multiprotocol client, designed for Microsoft Windows, with MirandaQQ2 plugin.
 * Eva
 * IRC through BitlBee client