01.16.08
Do You QQ?
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Do you have QQ? Chances are if you live in the People’s Republic of China, you have heard this sentence multiple times…in the past week. If you have never been to China, you probably have no idea what I am talking about. QQ is one of the world’s most widely used Internet chat clients, yet most people outside of China have never even heard of it.
QQ was originally known as OICQ, presumably as a ploy on ICQ. Since the name change, the letters “QQ” (a loose transliteration of 酷酷, a slang Chinese word which roughly means “cool”) have been popping up all over Chinese pop culture. Chery, a Chinese auto manufacturer now makes a low-end car called the QQ, and QQ奶茶 (QQ milk tea) has been popping up on the menus of Chinese restaurants and kiosks. Even more ubiquitous than the initials, may be the QQ penguin, who seems to appear on billboards, TV advertisements, and public events all over China.
The QQ software itself is garbage. It’s buggy, unstable, and contains a plethora of annoying flashy advertisements and bonus features which crowd the interface. From time to time, when logging in to QQ, users are greeted with a message that the server is overloaded and that they will have to login again later. To make matters even more complicated, QQ is not written with Unicode. This means that to get the Chinese version of QQ running on an English version of Windows, you have to switch the default non-Unicode program language on your computer to Chinese. (Originally I tried installing the English version, but removed it when I found it would not let me type Chinese characters, thus defeating the point of using QQ in the first place). Additionally, I have also heard numerous reports of spy ware and viruses being contracted through QQ. Yet QQ offers one distinct advantage over any other chat client, and that is everybody (I mean EVERYBODY) under the age of 30 in Mainland China has an account (if not 3). Walk into any Internet café in China, and you will likely notice that cute little penguin in the corner of the majority of the patrons’ desktops.
Because of its widespread usage in China, QQ is an integral tool for developing and maintaining a Chinese contact base. While older and more business savvy Chinese professionals are coming to prefer more “mature” chat clients such as MSN or Skype, it is still not uncommon for them to maintain QQ accounts as well, if not only for that same reason that everybody else in China seems to have one. My own personal QQ buddy list is chalked full of former students, friends, business contacts, and random folks I have met in crowded hard-seat cross-country trains, many of whom without QQ I would have lost contact with. Another advantage of QQ is that it is an excellent tool for obtaining and/or maintaining Chinese literacy. For me, I try to spend at least 15 minutes of my day on QQ, if nothing more than just for a quick Chinese character refreshment.
So it came to my dismay, but not to my surprise, that when I got my new computer I found the old version of QQ which I had been using (QQ 2006 Beta2) was not compatible with Windows Vista. I promptly went to qq.com and downloaded the new version (QQ 2007 II) which according to the website supports vista. I ran the install file, which installed halfway, then gave me an error message telling me the program I was running was not compatible with Windows Vista. Turns out, the new version of QQ is only compatible with the Chinese version of Windows Vista. I guess I should have seen that one coming.
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Update: I finally got QQ to work with Vista, but it wasn’t without the token roadblocks. I got the new English version to install properly, but as soon as I sent my first message I received an error which read “Your flash player version is too low, in order to display normally. Please click here to download the latest version.” Only when I clicked “here” it was a broken link. I updated my flash player manually, and it seems to be working properly…for now.

xge
said,
January 16, 2008 at 9:14 pm
It is amazing how buggy and anoying the QQ software is. But it is also amazing that how large the user base is. When I first tryied to apply for an account, it took me several hours to realize that the online free account application does work and it is made so intentionally. I have to get my account with a cellphone with a 1 RMB application fee. Just think about what if MSN/Yahoo/Google messenger needed an applicaiton fee for an account and they all have a fake free online application site. I went through all the trouble(2 nights and 1 RMB) to apply for a account just because that my mom has one.
Rene
said,
January 16, 2008 at 9:29 pm
My suggestion: use Skype. It’s a much better application, designed for international use, and the number of users in China is growing. In fact I think the number of users in China is now greater than any other single country.
Benjamin Ross
said,
January 16, 2008 at 10:54 pm
@Rene
I prefer Skype as well. And you’re right, it’s far superior to QQ. But there is that one advantage QQ has…that is that I’d say only 10 to 15 percent of my Chinese friends use Skype. The rest are all on QQ. And even those who use Skype are on QQ as well. So generally I use QQ to keep tabs on my Chinese contacts, and Skype for everybody else.
I think the QQ situation is similar to what happened with AOL in the mid 90’s. AOL wasn’t a particularly high quality online service, but it kicked ass in the ISP market for several years…The reason why everybody signed on?…because everybody else had it.
Matthew Stinson
said,
January 16, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Good post, Ben.
You might want to mention that not only did the early iterations of QQ borrow the name of ICQ, they also stole code from Western chat services!
Like xge, I too spent hours and hours trying to register a QQ number. In the end, however, I got mine for free and have kept it ever since. These days the QQ Mobile service is free, and I find myself using it more than the computer QQ.
Ben, I think the recent shift to MSN is because of companies banning QQ in the workplace. Another factor is the number of foreign clients who use MSN to communicate. Many of my students were big QQ users in university and then switched to MSN when they started working for these two reasons.
b. cheng
said,
January 17, 2008 at 12:57 am
Another example of QQ/Tencent’s failure (and failure to capture the richer 20 somethings) is that they’ve yet to make their own authorized version that can be used on a Mac. The ones that other programers have come out with are 10 times more annoying than anything you deal with on Windows and end up requiring complete refreshing whenever QQ releases a new edition.
I agree with Matt as to one of the reasons that MSN has taken over, but the biggest one that you’ll always here is that MSN offers more privacy. It isn’t uncommon to have random people add you on QQ or have annoyances like QQ Groups, but that doesn’t happen on MSN.
Peter
said,
January 17, 2008 at 1:29 am
QQ sucks big time. It’s a complete rip-off of Yahoo Messenger, Win Live messenger and what have we. Instead of learning from those other instant messenger clients, the good folks a QQ decided to mess it up with flashy and annoying stuff. That’s from a westerners pov of course.
My wife and other Chinese love it nevertheless. She runs both WLM and QQ and feel content with both. I suspect that she “loves” QQ because her family/friends use it and not for it’s usability or layout. It has become a must in China. Unfortunately.
The rumours about spyware/viruses are true. Both the virus-checker and spybot program have found nasty stuff in the QQ files. Some can be removed, while others are essential for QQ to work. I specifically remember that QQ-Game puts some bad files on your computer, so stay of that part. Besides the spybots etc, I have read elsewhere that the Chinese Gov have put filters to block out some words. Can’t remember the URL, but someone posted a negative words list retrieved from QQ. Seemed real enough, but can’t be sure. Wouldn’t surprise me though.
Benjamin Ross
said,
January 17, 2008 at 3:29 am
@ b. Cheng
Interesting you bring up QQ groups. This is possibly one of the most ridiculous functions of QQ. The idea of groups would be great, except for the fact that once you join one, you can never close it without exiting QQ (or leaving the group). Join a group with a lot of members, and you will receive a constant bombardment of messages every time you sign in. It is like being permanently signed into a chat room. This is especially frustrating when you have groups you want to be a member of, but don’t want to sacrifice the sanity which comes along with not having to close a new window every fifteen seconds.
Rick
said,
January 17, 2008 at 8:52 am
You could try a All-in-one IM client like pidgin or trillian (sp?).
I use Adium on a mac for qq and msn, and it works like a dream.
Vincent
said,
January 17, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I’ve come to a lot of similar conclusions to as you. The pro: the huge userbase. The con: the program sucks in a large number of ways. I’ve found similar pros and cons in American programs and social sites, particularly AIM (installs tons of AOL crap on your computer – but the dominant chat client for people who were in grade school in the 90s) and MySpace (utterly hostile user interface – “you need to be logged into do that” message when you’re trying to log in – user-unfriendly CSS customization that most people don’t know how to use properly and therefore become prey to “custom” myspace sites – but everyone in the world uses it).
I’ve developed a simple personal philosophy when it comes to using software or sites that all your friends are on but are poorly designed or programmed: use the program… without using it!
For example, one can log onto the AIM network without actually using the AIM program itself, through chat clients like Trillian or through websites that don’t require any downloading at all such as meebo.com. That way, I can stay in touch with AIM friends without getting all the AOL crap installed on my computer with the AIM installer.
My solution to myspace was to download a greasemonkey script that strips the css customization from every profile page as it loads – that way, I can stay in touch with my friends and family over myspace without having to deal with their poorly CSSed sites that have illegible font colors, giant pictures which add a horizontal scroll bar, or outright crash my browser.
I’ve adapted this approach to QQ, which, as you’ve written about, is a terrible program but has the unfortunate inertia of being the company that ate up all the instant messenger market in China. I installed pidgin, which Rick mentions above, which is a much more streamlined client that still accesses the QQ network. None of the clunky user interface, none of the bundled QQ software – but still, access to all the friends and contacts in China. I definitely endorse it as a way to get around the pitfalls of the actually QQ program itself.
What I’m waiting for, however, is a savvy website like meebo that can access the QQ network and give you chatting capabilities without installing any program whatsoever – a chat client in your browser. That way even if I’m using a computer other than my own that doesn’t have QQ I can still log on.
Since pidgin can access QQ I’m assuming that it’s only a matter of time that someone makes a web-based client. Maybe it’s been done – but it’s probably a Chinese site. Anybody know any better than I do?
T.
said,
January 17, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Hmm, this is odd. Maybe it’s because all the Chinese people I know are professionals (even my students have long since graduated university and entered the workforce) – so I have EVERYONE I know in China on MSN. Screw QQ.
canrun
said,
January 18, 2008 at 4:37 am
I am proud to say that, after 33 years on this earth, I have never, ever, not once ever used MSN, QQ or AOL. Or played a computer/Playstation game. Or been to a Starbucks for that matter. Oh, the humanity!
Tora
said,
January 19, 2008 at 9:11 am
@ Canrun
While I find that it is a most impressive feat, I wish to express my opinion that just because chatters and gamers are often excessive and addicted, it does not mean that chat programs and video games do not have their uses. For example: while I dislike Starbucks in general, when I was in Shanghai 3 years ago the only place I could get a halfway decent coffee was the Starbucks next to Lu Xun Park and ever since I’ve left China I haven’t been to one. I suppose that if you want any foreign comforts in China you have to deal with huge chains whose practices you may or may not agree with. I suppose my point is to do all things in moderation.
T.
said,
January 21, 2008 at 3:19 am
Why would you be proud of that? It’s like saying you’re proud never to have made a phone call. Or flown on an airplane? Very odd to feel superior about something so dumb. It’s just a form of communication.
Brendan
said,
January 21, 2008 at 4:10 pm
One of the many, many advantages of using a Mac is that there’s no official Mac version of QQ, so I get plausible deniability when people ask my QQ number. (I could never remember it anyway, even when I was on Windows.) There *is* an unofficial Mac QQ client called LumaQQ, and I even have it installed, but fortunately it cuts out the various virusware features of QQ. Another feature — or bug, I suppose, depending on how one feels — is that unlike the Windows client, the Mac version of QQ does not harass me with ads for local prostitutes.
THM
said,
January 22, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Ben,
Would you mind providing a link to the version of QQ that works with Windows Vista?
I absolutely hate QQ because of all the back-door portals it opens and the spyware it usually subjects your system too, but nearly all of my wife’s friends and family members prefer it to the other chat programs that are more common in the West.
Thanks!
THM
Benjamin Ross
said,
January 23, 2008 at 11:37 am
@THM
Try this link.
Ben Wu
said,
January 24, 2008 at 2:02 am
If you don’t like the annoying flashy advertisements and bonus features in QQ, you could try another IM client called “Tencent Messenger” (http://im.qq.com/tm/) by the same company. TM is designed for office workers. I have used it for nearly two years and the user interface is very neat. One of the unique features of TM is the Group (群) which other IM clients like MSN or Yahoo do not support. The Group is very useful if you want to IM among a large group of people, such as 200 people. I was taking a work study course and there were more than 200 student in my class and we created a Group and it was very effective and efficient.
Demerzel
said,
January 27, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Ironically, all my Chinese friends have now switched from QQ to MSN messenger. Not sure if this is a regional Shanghai thing, an upper class thing, or just an outlier, but just thought I would mention that. I personally always thought ICQ/QQ was better than AIM/MSN, but that the intrinsic usability and set-up was always a downside to those who did not want to take the time to learn how to use a chat client.
lei
said,
January 28, 2008 at 10:21 am
and i always thought MSN was utter crap. I think i will stick to my ichat using the AIM network, and LumaQQ for mac if i ever need to contact my chinese friends.
kastner
said,
February 1, 2008 at 6:07 am
Interesting. One tiny issue, they named it QQ, yes, a derivative of ICQ, but AFAIK, Q is the pronunciation of word Cute, QQ is a disyllable which is very common in the Chinese language.
Benjamin Ross
said,
February 5, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Just to add another little grievance on QQ (btw, I think somebody should really pull a Martin Luther on Tencent), today I was chatting on QQ with a friend who was using QQ on here cell phone. When she sent me a message it was preceded by
您的好友正在使用手机QQ,详情请咨询您的好友或点击:http://mobile.qq.com
translation: (Your friend is currently using QQ on his cell phone. If you want more information please ask your friend or go to http://mobile.qq.com
I’m already not a big fan of QQ’s excessive advertising, but what is so ridiculous (and ridiculously annoying) about this is that every single time my friend sends me a message, it is preceded by the same advertisement, as if in the 15 seconds it took me to read the message and respond, I somehow forgot QQ could be accessed via cell phone…then forgot again 15 seconds later, ad nauseum。。。烦死我了!
rea
said,
February 25, 2008 at 2:30 am
Hi guys. I’m in Germany and I’m trying to get qq running on my computer. But it can’t connect to the server. What should i do to get it running?
mac user
said,
February 28, 2008 at 10:30 pm
There is a Mac “Preview” version of QQ available at
http://im.qq.com/qq/mac/
I think “preview” means that it has limited functionality.
Robert
said,
March 24, 2008 at 12:23 pm
hi guys,
i wanna qq also to keep in touch with my friends in china
and also make new friends
from were can i download english version of qq
Jeff
said,
April 21, 2008 at 8:09 pm
My wife and I were recently in Xi’an China and met a teacher and we would like to be able to write her and send her some photo’s we took. she gave us her MY QQ number but I have no idea how to communicate with her. Any ideas?
Thanks.
Jeff H.
Benjamin Ross
said,
April 21, 2008 at 10:04 pm
@Jeff
QQ is a chat client, so you will need to sign for a QQ number. It’s free and easy, just go to http://www.qq.com, and if you can’t read Chinese, there should be a tab for English. I think there may also be a way to e-mail somebody directly to their QQ account, but I have never done this myself.
Anonymous
said,
May 5, 2008 at 2:43 am
I really like the layout and colors that you chose for this website! It certainly is incredible!
Anonymous
said,
May 6, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I just wanted to say WOW! your site is really good and i’m proud to be one of your surfers
shane
said,
August 15, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Hong Kong and Taiwan people generally use MSN and to a lesser extent Skype. QQ is mostly for mainland Chinese.
QQ is much less buggy now but it still installs backdoors for their ads.
The MAIN reason why QQ is everywhere is not because the chat client sucks, it is because of the way QQ IM integrates into QQ GAMES, QQ blog, QQ homepage, and most important QQ PET.
QQ is still the only IM client that takes advantage of chinese women’s penchant for cuteness, and if chinese women uses QQ, then the men uses QQ, then everyone else need to use QQ.
AP
said,
April 22, 2009 at 8:52 pm
It is good to see many of you sharing your feelings toward QQ. I do too! I really did not want to have QQ until yesterday and I have been travelling & living here for years. First of all, NOT everybody likes that ridiculously looking penguin!! This penguin seems to me very childish not stylish, not to mention like its un-sophisticated coloring & layouts. Everything makes me sick until yesterday I finally admitted to myself: If you want to stay connect to these local midland Chinese, Plssssss help me to have a QQ! And who knows, hey, maybe QQ connect me to cute local Chinese man who I have hard time feel attracted to & prospect biz opportunities? Installed QQ is a language to me that I finally let go of my differentiality that I purposely kept from local Chinese (I’m from an “Island” called Taiwan).
Tyler
said,
June 1, 2009 at 3:33 am
Hi
Enjoyed reading your post. I was almost on the brink of installing QQ on my own PCs, but now I think I’d rather settle for one of the all-in-one clients instead.
My girlfriend uses QQ and, while it’s still very annoying to me, it can be “tamed” if coupled with a powerful anti-virus program (e.g., Kaspersky). Unfortunately, it cannot tame that ridiculous interface.
If you’ve used other Chinese-based programs, you’ll see many similarities regarding the excessive advertising, problematic scripts and privacy issues. Take a look at eMule or Tudou or even the Chinese Realplayer.
Philip Lean
said,
June 13, 2009 at 11:14 pm
I suppose I came upon QQ later than you people and the version I am using is pretty good. I have the English interface version QQ2009 by Tencent, it works well, does it own checking for trojans. I have run several types of checks for backdoor activities and so far it is ok.
http://im.qq.com/intl/en/qq/2009/preview3/download.shtml
I use it for mainly for chatting and file transfer.
The chat facility is superior to most other chat programs. Skype still beats it for audio quality. The new feature of “offline” file transfer is really useful. Send photos to people when they are not online, when they com online they have the option to download the files.
Philip Lean
said,
June 13, 2009 at 11:29 pm
A couple more things in response to previous postings.
You can send email to a person’s QQ account, the QQ mailbox is huge so it will accept large files.
In the past I have had lots of things blocked on MSN into China, pretty innocent stuff really, like mentioning “gods” in a discussion about the origin of names of the days of the week in English. I have never had that sort of problem with QQ.
QQ and MSN
Many Chinese companies appear to allow their staff to access MSN for work, particularly if they are dealing with overseas customers. At the same time access to QQ at work is often blocked or not allowed. The reasoning behind this appears to be that a person using MSN in China is probably using it for work, or at least using it in English and a staff member learning more English is usually considered worthwhile.
I find is fascinating that many companies conduct business discussions using MSN, to me a record bound former civil servant it scares me that so much business conversation is virtually untraceable when people use a chat program. Completely different to using email.
Ben, I would love to read your comments on these things, and comments from others.
Nancy Arellano
said,
July 20, 2009 at 2:15 pm
For example, if i have an aol email address, can someone from a QQ email address email my aol email address?
or would i have to make a QQ email address to be able to communicate with the person?
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 20, 2009 at 4:29 pm
@Nancy
As far as I know QQ email works just like regular e-mail, and therefore you can send messages to people outside of the QQ network. However, among the QQ user demographic e-mail is generally not a very common means of communication. If a user wants to relay a message to another user who is currently not signed in, the typical protocol is to send him a regular QQ IM. As soon as he logs in, he will see the message and reply, thus leaving e-mail completely out of the equation.
Philip Lean
said,
July 20, 2009 at 4:47 pm
People appear to mainly use QQ email for sending attachments when the other person is offline. On QQ itself, the new version allows you to send attachments “offline”, but not everyone appears to have that version.
Another point, to get QQ to show Chinese characters you have to set the Windows “non unicode font” to a Chinese font (in the Windows control panel regional and language settings).
For those people scared to install the QQ software you can use several text chat programs, such as “Pidgin” they can be a bit tricky to set up with QQ and the interface is not as nice or as sophisticated.
For example QQ has the ability to grab a copy of a screen area. If you see a web page you like showing some photo or image advertisement you don’t understand, just use the “area select” and hit enter and it sends to the person you are talking to. Great for asking your Chinese friends – “what do these characters say /what does this sign mean?”.
Another feature, it is very easy to set up chat groups in QQ.
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 20, 2009 at 6:48 pm
@Philip Lean
Thanks for the info on QQ. I actually have a major beef with QQ groups, and am curious if you’ve found any way around it. Whenever you join a group, you are in turn, permanently logged into it. So if 12 people are having a rapid fire conversation about some topic I am not interested in, and meanwhile I am chatting with somebody else, their message window keeps chiming in with all their contents. If you close it, it just opens again as soon as another message goes through. This has effectively prevented me from making use of QQ groups since it is so incredibly annoying to have an endless stream of messages popping up and blinking all over my desktop.
Philip Lean
said,
July 27, 2009 at 7:16 am
I had the same problem and ended up blocking the groups unless I knew I wanted to be in the discussion – and I have to use online translation so I am always behind.
I was prodded by your question and asked some friends in China. Finally I found someone who knew how to do it.
1 – at the main QQ interface/screen click on the group chat icon/ the two conversations icon
2 – when it opens, right click on a group conversation
3 – a new menu will appear,
4- in the new menu, click on “group message settings”
5- a new menu will appear, I am told that the best choice there is “only message quantity is shown”
Try it and see which option you prefer.
Philip Lean
said,
July 27, 2009 at 10:08 am
I was Monday night, 27 July 2009, at around 8PM China time there were 63 million people logged into QQ.
So if you want to meet Chinese people it is a pretty good method. Just use your non Chinese name on QQ and lots of people will stop bu to say hello.
Lyn Lin
said,
September 20, 2009 at 12:03 am
Hi
Enjoyed reading your blog page. I would like to ask if anybody here knows how to find “simple word search” inside QQ chat message archive (or Message Manager). I’m quite new to QQ and currently using QQ for Mac version Beta 1 edition. I’ve tried google-ing for an answer but to no avail. I don’t have this problem with Skype though.
Philip Lean
said,
September 23, 2009 at 8:37 am
Lyn Lin
It took me a while to find the answer in my PC version, I hope it applies to the Mac version.
In my version, in the main chat window
1 – click on history
2 – the history window will open shoeing you the most recent history – in my version QQ 2009 – English version – you will see a small calendar, there you can select the date and the page of history you want to view – not much help for searching – But
3 – in the top right of the history window is symbol that looks like a loud speaker and next to it the word “more”
4 – click on that symbol and a new “Message manager” window opens showing your list of contacts and along the top you have the option to export or search.
I have found the search to be a bit puzzling, not as useful as I would like.
Exporting the chat history ( I exported “all” meaning all contacts and all conversations) has proved more useful. Export in unencrypted form to text and then open the export file in Word etc. Do your search there.
PS There are several programs which will examine the QQ “.db” Chat History files – used by network monitors to track transmissions and topics.
Why did I mention encrypted – this is a quote from the website
http://www.forensicfocus.com/forensic-investigation-of-instant-messenger-histories
“QQ messenger is probably the worst for investigators to deal with. It stores history in OLE containers, which are viewable by DocFile Viewer, but the data inside is encrypted with Blowfish algorithm! It sounds formidable, doesn’t it? We have good news! The key to decrypt is the QQ owner account number. Although QQ allows encrypting with a custom key, a limited number of people use this strong protective option. ”
I hope that helps.
Philip Lean
said,
September 23, 2009 at 8:51 am
sorry about the typos, it is late here
of course I meant
the history window will open showing you the most recent history
and
Export in unencrypted form – as a text document
(you can also export to an encrypted file and as a web page document.
Dennis Milliken
said,
October 7, 2009 at 1:06 pm
My friend in the PRC has recently started using her mobile phone access to QQ, however, When she message’s me off line, her messages are not being received. When we are on line together, texting/chatting from her phone works okay. I have been using the English version 2005 and just recently upgraded to 2009 to see if that would solve the problem. She sent me a couple of off line messages to me and still not luck receiving them when I log on. I also use talk2China, but she wanted to use qq from her phone to send larger text messages. Appreciate any help on this matter.
, from the USA
nike air max
said,
November 19, 2009 at 4:05 am
is good
cheap nike shoes
said,
May 19, 2010 at 2:11 am
QQ is the necessity of everyone…
Philip Lean
said,
May 19, 2010 at 8:29 am
The new high figures for QQ are around 107 million people online at once.
The new QQ international available from imqq.com is very nice.
QQ International is promoting QQ groups and offering support through the QQ International Ambassadors program http://www.imqq.com/
Carly
said,
July 5, 2010 at 10:53 am
I want to make some foreign friends in order to learn English well. My QQ number is243801181
guy who plays nexon said,
August 8, 2010 at 5:06 pm
QQ sucks balls 23 percent of the hackers there use it to block typing
Mateeo
said,
January 26, 2012 at 11:29 pm
im having problems to install QQ in my mac cus isnt authorize or something, so there is some way that i can install that..
thanks