Tencent launched the messaging service QQ in 1999.
Tencent introduced QQ, originally called OICQ, in February 1999. The service was created by Ma Huateng and colleagues and became one of China’s best-known internet communication platforms. The name was changed from OICQ because of trademark concerns involving ICQ, an earlier internet messaging service.
QQ expanded beyond text messaging into online communities, games, avatars, virtual items, and other digital services. Its recognizable penguin branding helped make it a major consumer internet product in China.
Tencent later launched WeChat in 2011. WeChat became especially important for smartphone messaging and mobile payments, but it did not replace QQ as the answer to the 1999 launch question. QQ and WeChat are separate Tencent services with different origins and periods of peak popularity.