MSN to Follow with Potato Chips?: QQ Adds Instant Noodles to IM Service
China's largest IM Service Provider, Tencent's QQ, just launched their own brand of instant noodles at internet cafes. If you have ever walked into an internet cafe in China, it looks like the a room out of the Matrix, with a room full of black PC's and swivel chairs row after row - and instant noodles seems to be the perfect technocrat nutrient :) With QQ's 110 million active IM users, that's a lot of potential instant noodle brand recognition.
Tencent is consistently growing their brand. With 77% of the IM market, their online gaming site in the the top 3, and they recently launched a online auction site, Paipai. It is interesting to chart how QQ will continue building their brand as foreign and domestic IM services encroach upon their user base. MSN, Yahoo and Google are all launching or have launched cross-IM applications. Their competitior, TOM Online, one of China's largest internet mobile companies, has secured a cross-service partnership with foreign VOIP provider, Skype; creating TOM-Skype. This is not to say that Tencent isn't already in a great position with the mobile market. They have successfully made the internet-mobile crossover, as their mobile IM services account for 55% of Tencent's revenues. For now, let's see if Tencent launchs more instant-food products! As Virtual China puts it, QQ launching instant noodles is like AOL IM launching instant pizzas.
Technorati Tags: brand, IM, Instant Messaging, instant noodles, QQ, tencent