On March 19 2008 China's largest Internet service provider Tencent (HK. 700) announced 2007 fourth quarter and annual results. In 2007 Tencent took in a total of CYN 3.8209 billion a 36.4% increase from 2006. The earnings translate into an outstanding profit of CYN 1.568 billion a 47.4% increase from last year's profit. Tencent also reported that the number of active Qzone users in a single month recently topped 100 million. Registering over 1 billion accesses per day Qzone has become the world's most active Chinese-language online community.

Qzone Active Users Largely Exceed Facebook's

As one of Tencent's most important online community Qzone fulfills users' demand for self-expression socialization and many other functions. Qzone expands QQ users' social sphere thereby creating a more interactive online experience.

According to report "2007 Research on Chinese Bloggers" the number of Chinese bloggers continuously increased throughout 2007 and eventually arrived at a total growth of 62.5%. Three indicators traffic number of users and interactivity (PV/Independent IP) put Qzone among the top tier of blog services. Qzone leads second tier blog services which include xiaonei.com hi.baidu.com blog.163.com and blog.sina.com.cn by a vast margin. The latest report from Facebook the American site acclaimed as the trend leader of online networking and Web 2.0 put its active users at 67 million. Qzone's active users in a single month exceed Facebook's by nearly 50%.

According Tencent's data most registered Qzone users are between the ages of 18 and 30 a fact consistent with the dominant age group among China's Internet users with male numbering slighter more than females. The most used Qzone features are Dressing Up Blog Photo Album Music Box and Friends. Famous Qzone members include economist Zhang Wuchang real estate tycoon Pan Shiyi head coach of China's national badminton team Li Yongbo sociologist Li Yinhe and celebrities such as Yang Lan Zhao Wei and Lin Junjie. International as well as domestic brands such as BMW Dior Mengniu China Mobile Shanghai Volkswagen Polo and Nonfu Tea have also established their own Qzone brand spaces in order to take advantage of Web 2.0-based business models.

Qzone Product Development Center Director Zheng Zhihao says "Qzone users can express themselves share feelings and make friends with people having similar interests. This year Qzone will continue to enrich its contents. Qzone will fully deploy its SNS network to enhance Qzone interactivity for users to build maintain and expand their social networks. In mid-2008 we will make available Qzone 5.0 which will feature improvements in social networking capacity user experience and many other enhancements that promise to bring a new and better Qzone experience."

Qzone to Become Tencent's Central Online Community Platform

Well-known sites such as MySpace and Facebook have recently made available instant messaging (IM) tools to allow easier communication among members. "Community Service + IM" has become the main trend in online community building.

Not long ago Tencent CEO Mr. Ma Huateng has also stated "In China instant messaging is the most used online application. Tencent's past success has been built on its instant messaging platform. Tencent's future success will be built on community-based instant messaging which will enhance community cohesion by handling real time as well as non-real time communication." Qzone is no doubt the best platform to development community-based products.

Industry experts point out that blog products can use multimedia enhancements with instant messaging tools to integrate self-expression and social networking into a single platform. In addition to taking advantage of Qzone's existing social networks Qzone will strengthen online community by increasing the realism of the user interface.

Mr. Huang Yongtao senior analyst for respected consulting firm IDC says "Qzone's more than 100 million users reflect Tencent's key role in the popularization of Web 2.0 in China. More and more Chinese Internet users are switching their main online interests from news browsing to content building and social networking. Much like instant messaging blog and personal space applications will benefit from the Matthew Effect: As blogs and personal spaces become increasingly popular the connection among users will become ever closer. There is no question that Tencent will be the leader in deploying Web 2.0 applications."

"Qzone's rapid development also reflects Tencent's versatility. China's online economy covers five basic areas: communication community content building client end and e-commerce. Tencent plays an important role in every one of these areas. It is Tencent's all-star power self-generating user network diversified revenue growth and effective marketing operations that have made Tencent China's most successful Internet company."