During sub-forum New Content and New Social at Tencent’s global partnership conference in Nanjing this morning, the company introduced strategies to form a young community for 19-year-old QQ, one of China’s earliest social softwares and the precedent of WeChat.
The company hopes to bring content-driven social network themes including e-sports, live streaming, gaming, and beauty to QQ.
“The integration of content and platform, the merging of recreational and social needs, and the intertwining of technology and culture – these are the 3 assets that keep QQ young,” Li Dan, market manager at Tencent’s corporate platform and content business unit, said.
According to Tencent, QQ Highlights (QQ看点), an algorithm-backed content recommendation feature, now has a daily active user of over 100 million. Around 70% users of the feature were born later than 1995, the generation which Tencent considers as the new key power among Chinese netizens.
Meanwhile, QQ Light Games (QQ轻游戏), a mini program-like platform for casual games, will generate traffic and material gains by cooperating with young content contributors.
“QQ Light Games will be a bridge. We provide games, while contributors produce content and upload it on QQ Highlights and other QQ short video ad live platforms. This will allow potential users to play a game for user generated content (UGC), and further encourage games and contributors to innovate,” said He Biao, the general manager at Tencent corporate platform and content-based paid product unit.
QQ business unit’s strategy announcement at the forum may seem a bit awkward to many people, as Tencent’s flagship WeChat is dominating areas such as real-time communication, payment, and mini-programs. However, the “outdated” software available on both PC and mobile devices are a unique user ecosystem and is still active in China.
At a recent game development competition, a developer asked TechNode to add him on QQ instead of WeChat. He said checking mobile or web versions of WeChat distracts him from his work, whereas QQ’s back-end based notification feature allows him to read important real-time messages on his personal computer. “And using QQ then becomes a habit, instead of sticking to WeChat,” he added.