Tag Archives: QQ

QQ Instant Messaging

Creating Your Qzone

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Signing up for a new QQ account is very straightforward. No knowledge of Chinese is needed if you go to the QQ International site. You’ll find it here: http://www.imqq.com/

Once you have your account set up, basically that involves telling QQ who you are, your date of birth, a new password and confirming your email address, you can start looking for new friends. Each QQ account has a Qzone attached to it. A Qzone is where you share photos, stories, logs (blogs) with your friends. They can comment on your material and you can visit their zones to do the same. The Qzone is sort of a mini-Facebook.

Some QQ users spend a lot of time dressing up their zones. You can too but, first, you have to open it up. Once you log-in to QQ, click on the right icon, the one that looks like four mini computer screens, then click on the Qzone icon shown here:

Photo of QQ main chat window
Clock on the Qzone icon.

Once you click on the Qzone icon, you’ll be taken to a page that is completely Chinese. Ah, your adventure begins. While the QQ chat window is in English, everything in your zone is in Chinese. Don’t worry, we’ve been using QQ for years and we’ll show you how to get around. This is what the first page looks like:

Photo of QQ Invitation Page
QQ is inviting you to open your zone.

The English for the blurb under the words “JOIN US” reads like this:

Logging life bit by bit, photo sharing moments
Show their own individual tastes, and friends with idyllic
Independence not as good as the public Lele Lele, so what, just join the QQ space family!  (at least that’s what Google translates it as).

If you click on the big blue box, the one that has QQ followed by two Chinese symbols, this is what you’ll see:

Qzone Confirmation Page
Fill out the information here, some of which is already completed, then click the bar at the bottom.

Basically, you name your zone (you can change it later), confirm your nickname, your sex, what calendar you want to use, your country of origin then a captcha (the BVQX thing). Lastly, signify that you have read the agreement by clicking the bar at the bottom. You’re set!

Next time we will add some photos to create an album. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading!

 

Chinese Social Media, QQ Instant Messaging, Qzone Privacy

Lock Your Qzone – update

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Our post on locking your Qzone was correct but one reader couldn’t duplicate one of the menus so here we are again. We’ll post another path to your security settings in case you can’t get to them as per the previous blog entry. Here we go:

1. Open your Qzone. Your main page will look like this but you can get to the security menu from any page:

Photo of basic Qzone menu
This is the area that you want to find at the top of the page.

2. Hover your cursor (mouse) over the third set of symbols to bring up this menu:

Photo of hover over menu.
Hover over the third set of symbols, underlined above, then click the circled symbol.

3. On the next page, look for the set of symbols on the right. Here they are:

Photo of Qzone menu
Look for the set of symbols that we’ve circled and click on them.

4. Once you click the circled symbols, this page will come up. What you are doing here is finding your profile settings and editing them, just as you do in Facebook or any other social networking site:

Photo of Qzone security page
Under the padlock icon, click the first set of symbols.

5. Clicking on the circled set of symbols will bring up the same menu as shown in our post about locking your profile. That article is here: Locking your Qzone

This is the menu:

Photo of Qzone security settings menu
Hovering over the circled set of symbols will bring out the menu just below it. This is where you can lock your zone.

TIP: As we said earlier, these settings are no different than the ones on Facebook or your MSN zone, basically the same as any other social networking site. The difference is that these settings are all in Chinese. If you use Google Chrome, the job is a bit easier. Part of the fun of all of this is getting to know some Chinese symbols and working out these settings on your own. It’s a mystery, right? Everyone loves a mystery. We hope this helped you. Let us know if it didn’t.

Thanks for reading!

 

Chinese Social Media

China’s Social Media – part one

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Estimates vary but the general consensus is that over half a billion Chinese are active Internet users. Of that number, several hundred million use mobile devices to access the web. Taking those massive numbers into account, it’s not hard to figure out which country in the world has the most dynamic selection of social media apps and sites. If you think the Facebook and Youtube and the be all and end all of social media, you’d better think again. Computers Made Simple will guide you through these various apps and sites over the next few posts. Hopefully, we can un-mystify China for you. Here we go!

TIP: Before we begin, we should emphasize that our browser of choice for anything Chinese is Google Chrome. Why? Because it’s the only browser we’ve found that instantly, more or less, translates full pages for us. Every Chinese site is, well, in Chinese. Almost all of the apps are in Chinese as well. Kind of makes sense, right? Using Chrome as your browser and installing Google Translate as an app on your mobile device will make your forays into the hectic world of Chinese social media a lot easier. You could spend years learning Chinese writing but we think our way is faster.

1. Start with QQ. We’ve written about QQ before so read up on it before you continue. That post is HERE .  Head over to read it, we’ll wait. Use QQ to interact directly with users all over the world. Don’t get hung up on age, either. QQ users are made up of every age group and demographic you can imagine. Many seniors in China are very capable Internet users. If you want to chat with someone in Mongolia or a Uyghur in Hunan, QQ is the place to start. Virtually all QQ users are Chinese but if you use QQ International with its internal translator, conversation is quick and easy…if not totally coherent because of the literal translations. While you may have to say the same thing in a different way, communication is almost always successful and very interesting.

2. QQ is made by Tencent, Inc. Tencent also brings us Weixin or WeChat, probably the best social app for mobile devices in existence. Yes, we’ve written about that before so check the post on that HERE. Since QQ and Weixin/WeChat are linked, you can chat inside of QQ or on Weixin, you use the same password for each. When one of your friends is using Weixin, a symbol will show up on your QQ friend list:

Photo of WeChat symbol on QQ Friend list

All of these QQ users are now signed into Weixin/WeChat. You can chat with them on your mobile device or in QQ.

3. Tencent has a few other offerings, including their own version of Weibo (think of Twitter but in Chinese) and Facebook. The Facebook clone is available through your Qzone and is called Pengyou. While we have accounts on both sites, we prefer the originals of these clones, Sina Weibo and Renren (the people network).

4. Sina Weibo is extremely popular in China with about 300 million registered users and around 100 million small ‘tweets’ every day. Weibo is the Chinese term for micro-blogging. We don’t think of Twitter as micro-blogging but Twitter and Weibo are pretty much the same. One of the big differences, however, is that photos and videos are placed right on the main page. To view either, you simply click on them and they will open up, no need to go to another page. That alone saves  time and makes the experience substantially more fun than Twitter. Here’s what we mean:

Bunny photo small in Weibo
Click on the photo, a magnifying cursor shows it can be enlarged.
Photo of large bunny in Weibo
Yes, there are cute bunnies on Weibo too.

Weibo is tightly controlled by China’s government.  Posts and posters are regularly censored or harmonized as they say in China. No matter, if you’re a regular user you’ll discover more about China in a few hours than you would in month’s searching a wiki.

5. Renren is the equivalent of Facebook. In our opinion, Renren is not simply a clone, it’s an improvement, with many features that we wish Facebook would adopt. Renren is essentially what Facebook was in the beginning, mainly for university students. Facebook widened its fan base but the younger Renren is still true to its origins. That doesn’t mean that you can’t join up and see what the other side is doing, however. Feel free to open an account and spend some time learning the ropes. What you’ll find on Renren is initially similar to Facebook but, bit by bit, you’ll begin to get a sense of the Chinese psyche, complete with girls posting pics of themselves then saying that they are fat, hoping that their friends will say that they aren’t. Tread carefully and fairly soon you’ll be welcomed into the community. Some users may resent the intrusion by a foreigner but most will make you feel welcome and try to help you if you have a problem with the Renren interface. As with any new forum that you join, spend some time getting to know the rules before you dive in. Above all, be yourself and show respect to others. You’re a visitor here.

TIP: Renren is substantially more open than Facebook, at least as far as nudity is concerned. Political criticism, however, can be censored/harmonized and sometimes can result in the suspension of your account. We constantly test the limits of censorship on one of our accounts and are amazed, quite frankly, at the enormous difference between Renren and Facebook. After a few months on Renren, you’ll spend less and less time on Facebook, we’d bet. Facebook will seem very Victorian after just a short time on Renren. While China moves ahead, the U.S. is slowly heading backwards, it seems.

That’s enough for this post. Next time we’ll cover more social media sites and apps from China. Make sure you come back to visit.

Thanks for reading!

QQ Instant Messaging

QQ International – the perfect chat app for everyone

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Tencent (Tencent, Inc. available at tencent.com) have several different free products that are worth looking at, even if you aren’t Chinese. As the Chinese Internet boom keeps booming, almost half a billion Internet users at this point, Tencent continues to offer innovative and interesting communication software. We have written about Weixin or WeChat in previous posts. Here are the links: Weixin 1  and WeChat Shake . Right now, we will give you a few details on QQ International, the incredibly efficient and fun chat app for everyone.

QQ has been around for quite a while. We’ve been using it for over four years now and it keeps getting better. We aren’t affiliated with Tencent in any way but we do admire their products. Since they are all free, we feel we should give praise where it’s due. Free is good and simple, that’s what we’re all about here, right? If you are Chinese, you already know about QQ and its many features. If you aren’t, now is the time to download it and start opening up your world.

QQ International simplifies the seemingly overwhelming job of accessing modern China. Where do you start? How can you discover the unique world that is modern day China? Well, an easy and fast and free way is to head over here: http://www.imqq.com/ and download QQ International, currently on version 1.3. Install the software and signup for an account using your current email address. QQ includes an email account but you need a third party email account to sign up. Everything is in English up to this point so don’t stress.

Once you have completed the sign-up, simply log in using your username and password and you’re off to the races….probably a completely different race than you’re ever experienced. Hundreds of millions of Chinese use QQ but more and more non-Chinese are using it everyday. While QQ International opens up the door to chatting with friends in China, there is no reason why you can’t chat and interact with users all over the world. If you are a trendsetter, convince your friends to download QQ and together you can start to enjoy a feature-rich chat experience unlike anything you’ve ever used before. MSN and Yahoo Messenger pale in comparison.

What features does QQ International have? To begin with, QQ will translate messages from Chinese to English almost instantly, allowing you to chat with someone whose English isn’t perfect PLUS QQ translates your English into Chinese just as instantly. Highlight the other person’s message and choose the translate button,then type your words in English and use the Alt/e key combo to translate your message back to them. Of course the translation is literal. Don’t expect the nuances of either language to come through and do expect a bit of confusion but don’t worry about it. If you aren’t familiar with China or its residents, you’ll find them very eager to chat with a native English speaker and equally as eager to share their knowledge of China and its customs.

QQ International also offers superb webcam support as well as crystal clear audio chat. Want to share a video you shot? Click the ‘Share video’ button and you’re off. Need some help with your computer? QQ offers an excellent remote assistance setup as well.

You can share files, of course, but you can also video chat with up to twenty other users. This feature is new with Version 1.3 but previous versions allowed multiple users the ability to chat with each other using their microphones. Many Chinese are extremely keen to learn English and have set up groups of people with similar interests. Using QQ, the group can trade pronunciation tips and stories with each other.

Each QQ account comes with a free Qzone. The Qzone is similar to MySpace in that you can post your photos, your stories, your music or whatever else you want to share with your friends. Here is where you might run into a problem. The Qzone is in Chinese. Unless you are using Google Chrome you will be lost trying to set yours up. Start to use Chrome and you’ll be off on your way to the excitement of discovering a new world.

There are many other features that come for free with QQ. We’ve outlined the main ones, you’ll have to discover the others on your own. If you need help, ask us or, better yet, make a new friend and ask them.

With WeChat, QQ, renren and Weibo, to name a few, China is offering up a solid set of communication tools which are just as good, sometimes better, than anything you’ll find on this side of the globe. Just because you live in North America or Europe, don’t assume you’ve got the best of the best. Give QQ International a try and you’ll see what we mean.

Thanks for reading!

Computers, QQ Instant Messaging, Social Networking, WeChat, Weixin

Weixan/WeChat – Shake your way to new friends

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EDIT: We’ve been in touch with WeChat on Twitter. They’ve sent us a couple of Direct Messages there. Here’s what they said: 

“Hi Brian. Thx for helping us answer users’ questions! I can see that ur site is a super useful resource! We really appreciate it!” 

All well and good but how about some help! Here’s the next one: 

“We read through some of the comments & submitted these issues to the team. We’ll get back to you as soon as I hear back….”

The last one was back on September 27th, 2013. Still waiting. We’ll post when we hear from them. 

 

Last week, we wrote about WeChat. Here is the post: WeChat/Weixin . Here is the link to WeChat at the Apple Store. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wechat!/id414478124?mt=8 It’s available in the Android app store, as well.

Sometimes it seems that the only innovations in social networking are coming out of China. Honestly, that’s not all that hard to figure out, seeing as how there are over a billion people there and almost half of them use the Internet. Of those users, about 400 million access the Internet using the various mobile devices available, many of which are Smartphones.

Add the fact that Chinese Internet users are very sociable, probably more so than North Americans, and you’ve got a perfect wave forming for a company like Tencent (http://www.tencent.com/en-us/index.shtml). Enter Weixin or WeChat. Tencent already has a huge market with QQ and its own version of Weibo but now, with WeChat, they have come up with a purely mobile chat application that is, to us anyway, stunning.

Read our previous post then come back and find out how to meet new people using WeChat. Take your time, we’ll wait.

OK! Here we go. There are three completely different ways to look for other WeChat users. Of course, you can plunk in your other social media passwords and find out which friends already use WeChat or you can invite them to start using it, but here we’re talking about meeting completely new people.

1. The first way is to simply ‘Look Around’. If your mobile device has a GPS monitor, you’ll be able to search out WeChat users who live in your area. In my case, I found users within 900 meters of my home. To me, that’s kind of like standing on your porch and shouting, “Is there anybody out there?” Of course, the local users are all Chinese, except for me that is. Most early adopters of WeChat are overwhelmingly Chinese but, theoretically, that will change.

Once you find a WeChat user nearby, you can simply say, “Hi”. You can also tune the Look Around feature to show only males, only females or both. Personally, I think this feature is pretty cool but I can also see how it might seem creepy to some of you. If it does, you can easily delete the Look Around plug-in. It is part of the default set of plug-ins and is easily removed.

2. Instead of looking around for other WeChat users, you can shake your way to new relationships using the Shake plug-in. Choose the option from the screen and simply give your mobile phone a shake. WeChat looks around for other users who are shaking their devices at the same time and gives you the option to say hi to them. This plug-in is more proactive than the Look Around feature since you already know that the person shaking their phone is looking to make contact with someone. Say hi and see how it goes. You can always shake again if things turn sour. Remember, again, that virtually every user you contact will be Chinese. If you know anything about China and the Chinese people, you will know that almost everyone wants to learn English but many Chinese already have a rudimentary knowledge of it.  Many Chinese speak and write better English than some of your friends and neighbors, too.

TIP: If you meet someone you like and the English thing isn’t getting you anywhere, you can download QQ International. We’ll do another post on it but, for now, we’ll simply say that you can chat with someone who only knows Chinese even if you only know English. There is a wonderful translation app built into the International version which has opened up the world to China and, of course, China to the world.

3. The last way to meet new friends is to simply cast a bottle out into the ocean. Of course, this is a virtual bottle but it works the same way as a real bottle with a message in it. Type in your note or use a voice message and then toss your bottle into the ocean of WeChat users. WeChat will notify you when someone replies. Just now, I tossed a bottle out and almost instantly got three replies. One was a female exchange student in Denmark, another was a man who left me a voice message and the third was also a guy who just said, ‘Hello”. In the span of five minutes, I’ve got three new people to share things with. Cool!

WeChat isn’t for everyone. At this point, you have to have a keen interest in China and the Chinese people. You also have to be patient and be able to understand that not everyone in the world speaks perfect English. Once you’re over those hurdles, WeChat is loads of fun. Additionally, if you wait a year or so, WeChat will be flooded with millions of other users. At this point, it supports Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Portuguese, plus English and Chinese. (If you know social networking, you’ll see the importance of having WeChat available in Portuguese. Orkut, the Google version of Facebook, is extremely popular in Brazil.)

Questions, comments, links are all welcome. Thanks for reading!