China's Tencent buys Google-backed social networking firm

August 24, 2010
Internet company Tencent Holdings has bought Chinese social networking firm Comsenz for more than 60 million dollars

Enlarge

Pictured is the logo for Tencent Holdings. The mainland Internet company has bought Google-backed Chinese social networking firm Comsenz for more than 60 million dollars, the companies and a media report said.

Mainland Internet company Tencent Holdings has bought Google-backed Chinese social networking firm Comsenz for more than 60 million dollars, the companies and a media report said.

Tencent, based in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, will seek to link accounts from Comsenz's Discuz! platform to its popular instant messaging service QQ, the firms said in a statement.

Investors in Beijing-based Comsenz, which makes software for posting messages on websites, include and two US venture capital firms -- Sequoia Capital and Morningside Ventures.

The two companies did not disclose the value of the deal but a report carried in the China Business News said it was worth more than 60 million dollars, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.

China has the world's largest Internet population with around 420 million users, according to official figures.

Neither Tencent or Comsenz have specified the size of Google's investment in the firm.

The acquisition came after Google said earlier this year it would no longer bow to government censors and effectively shut down its mainland search engine, re-routing mainland users to its uncensored site in Hong Kong.

As well as QQ, Hong Kong-listed Tencent operates various online services, including games, QQ.com, search engine soso.com and a mobile portal.

(c) 2010 AFP


Rank 5 /5 (1 vote)
Tags

social networking, google, web portal
Related Stories
more news
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Calling function with no input argument
    created16 hours ago
  • Force free body diagram problem on gym equipment
    created17 hours ago
  • Empirical data regarding shower heads and water
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • feed hold button on CNC lathe
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • RFAC in Fortran
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • dynamics 2/32
    createdFeb 08, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - General Engineering

More news stories

Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)

The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.

Technology / Internet

created 11 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 16

New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission

Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created 19 hours ago | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets

Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.

Technology / Internet

created 9 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

New power source discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and RMIT University have made a breakthrough in energy storage and power generation.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created 18 hours ago | popularity 4.7 / 5 (31) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Small modular reactor design could be a 'SUPERSTAR'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Though most of today's nuclear reactors are cooled by water, we've long known that there are alternatives; in fact, the world's first nuclear-powered electricity in 1951 came from a reactor ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created 19 hours ago | popularity 4.4 / 5 (13) | comments 25 | with audio podcast


Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...

The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males

A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...

Advanced power-grid model finds low-cost, low-carbon future in West

(PhysOrg.com) -- The least expensive way for the Western U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to help prevent the worst consequences of global warming is to replace coal with renewable and other ...

Could Venus be shifting gear?

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has discovered that our cloud-covered neighbour spins a little slower than previously measured. Peering through the dense atmosphere in the infrared, the ...

Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins

Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...

Japan scientist makes 'Avatar' robot

A Japanese-developed robot that mimics the movements of its human controller is bringing the Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" one step closer to reality.