This Day, That Year

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On Feb 10, 1999, Tencent released its first online instant messaging service product - OICQ messenger - later renamed QQ.

Thanks to China's dramatic internet boom in the late 1990s, QQ became the most popular instant messenger in the country, as seen in an article from China Daily on Oct 6, 2009.