# Tencent QQ

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Instant messaging software service

"QQ" redirects here. For other uses, see [QQ (disambiguation)](/source/QQ_(disambiguation)).

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QQ Developer Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd. Release 10 February 1999; 27 years ago (1999-02-10) Stable release(s) [±] iOS, iPadOS, watchOS 9.2.12[1] / 28 August 2025; 10 months ago (28 August 2025) Android 9.2.10[2] / 20 August 2025; 10 months ago (20 August 2025) Windows 9.9.21[3] / 4 September 2025; 9 months ago (4 September 2025) Linux 3.2.19[4] / 20 August 2025; 10 months ago (20 August 2025) macOS 6.9.79[5] / 20 August 2025; 10 months ago (20 August 2025) HarmonyOS 9.1.65[6] / () Written in C++ Java JavaScript Engine Electron Operating system Cross-platform Available in Simplified Chinese Type Instant messaging License Proprietary Website im.qq.com

**Tencent QQ** ([Chinese](/source/Simplified_Chinese_characters): 腾讯QQ), also known as **QQ**, is an [instant messaging](/source/Instant_messaging) [software service](/source/Software_service) and [web portal](/source/Web_portal) developed by the Chinese technology company [Tencent](/source/Tencent). QQ offers services that provide [online social games](/source/Social_network_game), [music](/source/Online_music_store), [shopping](/source/Online_shopping), [microblogging](/source/Microblogging), movies, and [group and voice chat](/source/Voice_over_IP) software. As of March 2023, there were 597 million monthly active QQ accounts.[7]

## 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](/source/ICQ)).[8][9][10][11]

After the threat of a [trademark](/source/Trademark) [infringement](/source/Copyright_infringement) lawsuit by the [AOL](/source/American_Online)-owned ICQ, the product's name was changed to QQ[9][10][11] (with "Q" and "QQ" used to imply "cute").[8][11] The software inherited existing functions from ICQ, and additional features such as software skins, people's images, and emoticons.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] QQ was first released as a "[network paging](/source/Simple_Network_Paging_Protocol)" real-time communications service. Other features were later added, such as [chatrooms](/source/Chatroom), games, [personal avatars](/source/Avatar_(computing)) (similar to "Meego" in MSN), [online storage](/source/File_hosting_service), and [Internet dating](/source/Internet_dating) services.

The official client runs on [Microsoft Windows](/source/Microsoft_Windows) and a beta public version was launched for [Mac OS X](/source/Mac_OS_X) version 10.4.9 or newer.[12] Formerly, two web versions, WebQQ (full version) and WebQQ Mini (Lite version), which made use of [Ajax](/source/Ajax_(programming)), were available.[13][14] Development, support, and availability of WebQQ Mini, however, has since been discontinued. On 31 July 2008, Tencent released an official client for Linux,[15] but this has not been made compatible with the Windows version and it is not capable of [voice calls](/source/Voice_call).

In response to competition with other instant messengers, such as [Windows Live Messenger](/source/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](/source/Windows_Live_Messenger) (WLM) and [Sina UC](/source/SINA.com). 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:

- Red for the QQ Show service which features some superficial abilities such as having a colored account name.

- Yellow to obtain extra storage and decorations in [Qzone](/source/Qzone)—a blog service.

- Blue to obtain special abilities in the game-plays of QQ games.

- Purple for obtaining special abilities in games including QQ Speed, QQ Nana, and QQ Tang

- Pink for having different boosts in the pet-raising game called QQ Pet.

- Green for using QQ music—a service for users to stream music online.

- VIP for having extra features in the chat client such as removing advertisements

- Black for gaining benefits related to DNF ([Dungeon & Fighter](/source/Dungeon_Fighter_Online)), a multiplayer PC beat 'em up video game.

## QQ Coin

The QQ Coin is a [virtual currency](/source/Virtual_economy) used by QQ users to "purchase" QQ related items for their [avatar](/source/Avatar_(computing)) and [blog](/source/Blog). QQ Coins are obtained either by purchase (one coin for one [RMB](/source/Renminbi)) 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.[16] This has raised concerns of replacing (and thus "inflating") real currency in these transactions.

The [People's Bank of China](/source/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.[17][18] However, this only caused the value of QQ coins to rise as more and more third-party vendors started to accept them.[19] Tencent claims the QQ Coin is a mere regular commodity, and is, therefore, not a currency.[20]

## Qzone

Main article: [Qzone](/source/Qzone)

Qzone is a social networking website based in China which was created by Tencent in 2005.[21] Qzone 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.[22]

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](/source/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](/source/Machine_translation) in all chats.

### Android

An Android version of QQ International was released in September of 2013.[23] 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](/source/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,[24] fully equivalent to its Android counterpart.

### Partnerships

In India, Tencent has partnered with [ibibo](/source/Ibibo)[25] to bring services such as chat, mail and game to the developing Indian internet sphere.

In Vietnam, Tencent has struck a deal with [VinaGame](/source/VinaGame)[26] 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](/source/AOL) to bring [QQ Games](/source/QQ_Games) as a contender in the US social gaming market. Launched in 2007,[27] 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](/source/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.[28] Tencent's social network [Qzone](/source/Qzone) is linked to in the International and native versions of QQ.

## Open source and cross-platform clients

Using [reverse engineering](/source/Reverse_engineering), open source [communities](/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.

- [Pidgin](/source/Pidgin_(software)), also known as: [GAIM](/source/GAIM) an open source cross-platform [multiprotocol client](/source/Multiprotocol_instant_messaging_application), with third-party [plugin](/source/Plug-in_(computing)).

- [Adium](/source/Adium), an open source macOS client, with third-party plugin built on top of libqq-pidgin

- [Kopete](/source/Kopete), an open source multiprotocol client by [KDE](/source/KDE) - Note: Kopete, old versions of Pidgin, and any other client whose QQ support was based on libpurple no longer supports QQ as of May 2011[29]

- [Miranda NG](/source/Miranda_NG), an open source [multiprotocol client](/source/Multiprotocol_instant_messaging_application), designed for [Microsoft Windows](/source/Microsoft_Windows), with MirandaQQ2[30] plugin.

- Eva

- [Trillian](/source/Trillian_(software)), is a Multiprotocol [Instant Messaging](/source/Instant_Messaging) [Software](/source/Software) made as [Freeware](/source/Freeware) Developed by Cerulean Studios which ran off [Plugins](/source/Plug-in_(computing)) to connect to things such as: [AIM](/source/AIM_(software)), [ICQ](/source/ICQ), [Yahoo Messenger](/source/Yahoo_Messenger), [MSN Messenger](/source/MSN_Messenger) and [XMPP/Jabber](/source/XMPP%2FJabber).

## 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

- The accounts of QQ are purely a combination of numbers. The account numbers provided for the registered users are selected randomly by the system user registration. In 1995, the registered QQ accounts had only 5 digits, while currently, the digital numbers used for QQ accounts has reached 12. The first QQ number is held by [Ma Huateng](/source/Ma_Huateng) and his account number is 10001.

- Membership to a QQ account usually lasts one month. When this membership is overdue and not renewed, the membership of the account will be suspended.

- In relation to calculating "QQ Age", being logged in for 2 full hours would be considered as one full day. Thus, being logged in to QQ for around 700 hours would make the age increase by 1 year. In the 2012 version of QQ, users can see the age on the personal information page.

- In 2004, Tencent launched QQ hierarchy which shows the level of a registered member. At the very beginning, this hierarchy was solely based on the hours a member spent in QQ. Hence, the longer the member stayed, the higher level they can attain. These results, however, were criticized as people tend to waste electrical energy due to longer hours of stay on the site. Therefore, Tencent changed the basis from an hour unit to a daily unit due to the involvement of several departments.

## 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.[31] The case resulted in a three-year prison sentence for Shoufu.[32]

### Dispute with Qihoo 360

Main article: [360 v. Tencent](/source/360_v._Tencent)

In 2010, Chinese anti-virus company, [Qihoo 360](/source/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](/source/Malware) and denied users of installing 360 access to some of the QQ's services. The Chinese [Ministry of Industry and Information](/source/Ministry_of_Industry_and_Information_Technology_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China) reprimanded both companies for "improper competition" and ordered them to come to an agreement.[33]

### Government surveillance

Some observers have criticized QQ's compliance in the Chinese government's [Internet surveillance and censorship](/source/Internet_censorship_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China).[34] A 2013 report by [Reporters Without Borders](/source/Reporters_Without_Borders) specifically mentioned QQ as allowing authorities to monitor online conversations for keywords or phrases and track participants by their user number.[35]

### Adware controversy

The Chinese version of QQ makes use of embedded advertisements. Older versions of the client have been branded as malicious [adware](/source/Adware) by some antivirus and anti-spyware vendors.[36][37][38]

Both the Chinese and International versions of QQ had been tested in 2013.[39] Currently it is identified as malware by DrWeb, Zillya, NANO-Antivirus, and VBA32, who give positive results, most of which identify it as a trojan.[40]

## Security

On March 6, 2015, QQ scored 2 out of 7 points on the [Electronic Frontier Foundation](/source/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](/source/End-to-end_encryption), 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](/source/Forward_secrecy)), the code is not open to independent review (i.e. the code is not [open-source](/source/Open-source_software)), and the security design is not properly documented.[41]

## See also

- [Comparison of instant messaging clients](/source/Comparison_of_instant_messaging_clients)

- [WeChat](/source/WeChat)

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## External links

- (in Chinese) [Official website](http://im.qq.com)

v t e Tencent Services Foxmail iflix JOOX QQ QQLive Qzone Sogou Soso Tencent Animation and Comics Tencent Cloud Tencent Maps Tencent Video Tencent Weibo WeBank WeChat Red envelope Music KuGou Ku Music Asian Music Awards QQ Music QQ Music Awards Tencent Music Universal Music Group Film and television New Classics Media Tencent Pictures Video games Fatshark Fulqrum Publishing Funcom Grinding Gear Games Klei Entertainment Leyou Athlon Games Digital Extremes Miniclip QQ Games Riot Games Radiant Entertainment Sumo Group Auroch Digital The Chinese Room Sumo Digital Supercell Techland Tencent Games LightSpeed Studios TiMi Studio Group Tequila Works Turtle Rock Studios Valhalla Game Studios Visual Arts Key KineticNovel WeGame Yager Development Related 360 v. Tencent Lao Gan Ma fraud case Naspers Prosus People Ma Huateng Allen Zhang Tony Zhang Chen Yidan Chen Xiaonan

v t e Instant messaging Protocols (comparison) Open DDP IMPP IRC Matrix MLS MTProto Retroshare Signal Protocol SIP MSRP SIMPLE Tox XMPP Jingle Zephyr Closed MSNP OSCAR TOC Skype Services Band BBM Enterprise Beeper BiP Bitchat DingTalk Discord Element Google Chat Google Meet Google Messages GroupMe iGap iMessage Imo Instagram Direct Messenger JioChat Jongla KakaoTalk Kik Lark Libon Line Marco Polo Mattermost Max Facebook Messenger Messenger Kids Olvid Paltalk The Palace QQ Rocket.Chat Sandes Session ShareChat Signal Slack Snapchat Snow Stoat Tango Live Telegram Textfree Threema Trillian Viber VK Messenger WeChat WhatsApp Wickr WOLF Zalo Zoom Zulip Clients (comparison) Single protocol Baidu Hi BBM Enterprise Briar Element FaceTime Gadu-Gadu GroupMe HCL Sametime IMVU Jami Jongla Linphone Facebook Messenger Olvid QQ Retroshare Ricochet Session Signal Telegram Tox WeChat WhatsApp Wickr Wire WOLF Multi-protocol Adium Ayttm Beeper BitlBee Centericq eBuddy Jitsi Kopete Messages Miranda NG Nimbuzz Pidgin Finch Telepathy Thunderbird Trillian XMPP (Jabber) Conversations Gajim Movim Psi Spark Xabber MSNP Microsoft Teams Defunct List of defunct instant messaging platforms Related Backchannel Chat log Chatbot Circuit Comparison of user features of messaging platforms Contact list Emoticon File sharing FirstClass Flock Fuze Box Hall.com LAN messenger Online chat Presence information RingCentral Glip SMS language Status message U-Report Videotelephony Viva Engage VoIP Webcam

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tencent QQ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent_QQ) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent_QQ?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.