International Media Trends- QQ, Chinese Social Media

    Social media is a wide reaching web that engrosses the majority of internet accessible areas in the world. I've looked into various apps that are popular in countries other than my own and they all seem to share the same basic structure, my guess is that no one wants to stray too far from a winning formula. I've researched the popular Chinese apps Weibo and WeChat but I found out a platform I had overlooked the first time called Tencent QQ. It is evidently widely popular in China. It's so strange to me that I missed it the first couple times around studying up on foreign social media due to the massive user base it has yielded. 

       Data reveals that it is the 8th largest social network on the globe. It has over 600 million global users and is considered to be the 2nd most poplar social network in China. WeChat has a larger user base but ironically it comes in at number six and is also operated by Tencent. In 2016 QQ boasted superior numbers but the data has indicated a shift of more users to WeChat. It still puts up decent numbers in terms of usage and revenue contributing to 366.3 million and rising for Tencent's profits. From what I have gathered it functions more like Facebook in terms of being multi-faceted. It is an app as well as a web portal. You can chat, play games, shop, watch movies, and a number of other things. This versatility likely attributes to why the app is so popular among the busy Chinese populace.

 Anything they might need is a mere few clicks away.

    I hit a slight wall in my research seeing as my laptop was having trouble auto-translating the content on their website. I was able to gleam information by dragging the text on the site into a translator manually. It seems the app puts a big emphasis on group experiences and chatting with new people from all over the globe. There was a quote along the lines of "enjoy the thrill of being online with hundreds of millions of people at once". Their social based games are much like those you see on Facebook such as Farmville (if thats even still a thing). Another interesting feature is being able to find users in your area to chat with. A proximity based search is usually only reserved for things like dating apps unless you have a specific name and location for a user. It also has connectivity to Facebook so if you already have friends on it that also use the app then you can add them directly from that list. The most interesting and convenient feature in my opinion was the apps ability to auto-translate messages you receive. As someone who has dated a non-English speaking partner that would have helped tremendously. Spanish is difficult for me so while I wouldn't have been furthering my skills It would have made communication easier and clearer through text message. As far as what the app looks like it seems a bit outdated. While the screenshots I've seen look charming they also remind me of early social media such as MySpace or like a fake website kids would use in an early 2000's sitcom. In this case maybe the simplistic design approach is to make it easier to use for all ages?

    

    Do I see this app making a transition to the U.S.? I don't believe so. Facebook already provides most of the services QQ offers and more. I could see this expanding to other Asian countries where Facebook is less prominent. The reality of this product is that it's marketed as a Chinese social media despite it's global communication emphasis. All in al it seems to meet the needs of many Chinese consumers but if the trend being seen continues it may lose even higher number of users to WeChat. This isn't a huge loss for Tencent seeing as they still retain that business just on a different app. The market seems to be fairly well cornered by competitors here so I foresee QQ sticking to it's roots in the long term and making as much revenue as possible before people move on to the next biggest craze whether that's still WeChat or a new app is thrust to the top of the food chain.