QQ was originally named "Online Chinese Pager" or OICQ for short. In any case, OICQ is a horse's improvisation imitating ICQ. ICQ is popular all over the world, but there is no Chinese version. Chinese instant messaging software such as PICQ and CICQ has appeared, but it has not effectively opened the market.
One day at the beginning of 1999, OICQ software suddenly hung on the Internet, and it changed from directional gift to free download. OICQ, with its concise, practical style and elaborate design, became an instant hit in colleges and universities at first, and then spread at an alarming speed centering on colleges and universities.
However, the geometric increase in the number of OICQ users has made the problem of whether it can support OICQ serious, and the geometric increase in monthly server hosting costs has also made Tencent unbearable. At the beginning of 2000, relying on OICQ to occupy the market position for only half a year, Tencent was lucky to attract the investment of $2.2 million from IDG and PCG owned by Li Zekai, accounting for 40% of the shares.
Despite a sum of money, there is no worry about life and death for the time being. However, the registered number of OICQ continues to grow with a steep curve, but the profit model of OICQ has not yet been found. In fact, ICQ, the pioneer of OICQ, has never had a profit model. Tencent's exploration of OICQ profit model began with online advertising. In the new version of the software on July 25th, 2000, a banner was inserted at the message receiving end.
Although Tencent's online advertising sales have developed very well, it once ranked third in the survey of "pioneers of online advertising", followed by Sina Sohu. However, compared with the investment of adding hundreds of thousands of registered users every day (up to 800 thousand at the peak) and adding two servers every month, online advertising is a bit of a drop in the bucket.
When China Mobile launched Monternet at the end of 2000, it probably didn't know that this innovative value chain would save a number of Internet companies. Tencent is at the forefront of this list. Tencent quickly launched a fee-paying membership service, restricted page registration, and launched a mobile QQ service. For a time, Tencent became the backbone of Monternet, with the highest share accounting for 70% of Monternet.
Tencent makes money at the same speed as registered users. Only in July of 20001,Tencent realized positive cash flow, and by the end of 20001,Tencent realized a net profit of/kloc-0.022 million RMB. At the same time, in March of 20001year, Tencent changed the name of the software to QQ in response to the copyright lawsuit of ICQ.
In 2002 and 2003, on the one hand, Tencent launched some new services, such as QQ line and QQ Show, on the other hand, it was constantly learning, such as learning Sina to push text messages and ringtones, learning Netease to launch QQ dating service for men and women, and learning to play online games grandly. In 2002, Tencent's net profit was 65.438+0.44 billion, an increase of 654.38+00 times over the previous year. In 2003, Tencent's net profit was 338 million, nearly double that of 2002.
Today, Tencent has become a world-renowned Internet company, and its business covers all parts of the world.