Tencent Holdings Limited announced the launch of their QQ International instant messenger product.

The international version, known as QQi 1.0, is now available in English, Japanese and French and is intended for users worldwide. The service is free of charge, free of ads and can be downloaded for Windows based PCs from the company. Additionally a light version of QQi with stripped down functions is available for Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Apart from its core IM functionality, QQi offers its users a variety of free apps to explore anything China related from job opportunities, news or language learning tools, to events, travel deals, directories and videos. The service has already partnered with a range of large local partners, such as the top travel portal Ctrip.com or local news paper ChinaDaily.com and will in the future integrate more third party apps from local and global players.