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Tencent (CN) | A Carp Swims Up the River | 1

Empires - An Asian Business Podcast

CHAPTER

The Story of Tencent's OICQ

In 1998, China had less than 1% of their users owning a personal computer. Because PC users did not use their own PC and relied on slow internet bandwidths, they would favor a small portable app that could be used regardless of their PC. Tencent built exactly that, dedicated sleepless nights to optimize file size and storing all contact data on its server. By the early 2000s, OICQ became one of the top messaging desktop applications which drew attention from AOL,. American Online wasn't drawn in as an investor, instead as an enemy.

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