The new social service will focus "on groups, communities, organizations, rather than on personal profiles," Violo said, although personal profile pages will still be included. "It's something we have started from scratch in order to comply with the expectations from non-Chinese users," he said. The product, however, will not be based on any previous software Tencent has created. And right now we are not in the position to do that."Ĭoinciding with the release, Tencent is also preparing to launch a new social network service for foreigners in China sometime in the first quarter of 2011. "If you import that model to the United States, you would have to provide everything you need in the United States. "Our strength is if you use QQ International, you can connect with everything you want in China," Violo said. Support for Spanish, German and Korean will be added during the first quarter of 2011.īut even as QQ International opens up the client to new overseas users, the product is still focused on China. Version 1.0 of the client adds an invitation function, among other features. So far about 55 percent of the QQ International users are foreigners, while the rest are Chinese users who have an international background or an interest in foreign countries, Violo said. Now the product has more than 2 million registered accounts with about 1.3 million active. The first beta was launched in September 2009. The client has also partnered with local foreign-language media to provide users with information and news related to China, and even Chinese language lessons. QQ International is being promoted as a way for foreigners to instant message with Chinese Internet users for personal or business matters. The development of the product came about due to China's growing international presence and as more foreigners have come to visit and study in the country. "This is a way of doing it without investing heavily." "I would definitely say it's not their main focus," Violo said. Like other major Chinese Internet firms such as Baidu and Alibaba Group, Tencent is "slowly seeding its brand and products" to overseas users, he said. While Tencent is still focused on China, the company is slowly looking at the international market, said Mark Violo, product manager for Tencent.
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