[In-depth Report: The Mystery of QQ's Birth]

[The Mystery of QQ's Birth]

Tencent QQ has repeatedly created miracles in China's Internet. However, the more familiar something is, the easier it is for people to overlook the stories behind it. The stories within Tencent QQ are just as fascinating as its business achievements. QQ was originally named OICQ and had another lesser-known name, TIM (Tencent Instant Messenger).

[The Mystery of Its Birth]

The magazine *IT Manager World* once published a substantial article about Tencent and interviewed Mr. Pony Ma. Everyone now knows that Tencent QQ was an accidental success - "a flower that failed to bloom despite careful nurturing but a willow tree that grew despite being planted without thought." Originally, it was a project intended for internal communication for a certain company, but due to unsuccessful bidding, the project was abandoned. At that time, Mr. Pony Ma had just founded Tencent. "Should we develop it ourselves? We don't have the capital! Should we sell it? The price is too low." Back then, Tencent only planned to sell QQ (which was then called OICQ) for 30 million RMB (how much would it be worth now? Only heaven knows). But no one was willing to take it over. Who could have predicted Tencent's achievements today? Seeing their "child" (Mr. Ma seemed to like referring to OICQ this way) unwanted, they were truly heartbroken. They didn't want to sell it, but they couldn't continue developing it either. Thus, Tencent put OICQ on their homepage for netizens to freely download, treating it as a test.