A nationally sponsored group is about to embark on a trip to Antarctica to greet the 24th Chinese Antarctic Research Team who are manning their post and braving Antarctic elements even during Spring Festival. The visiting group will also spend the traditional Lantern Festival with the research team. Representing the first enterprise to have sponsored activities of the Antarctic Research Team Tencent Vice President and Tencent Public Charity Foundation Director Guo Kaitian will be participating in the journey to visit the Antarctic Research Team. Mr. Guo will for the first time bring the familiar QQ Penguin mascot and greetings from the online community to Antarctica.

The Tencent Public Charity Foundation has reached a cooperative agreement with the Department of National Land Survey of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping. In a Beijng ceremony the foundation has signed an agreement to contribute an intial two million yuan to Antarctic research projects. In addition to providing fiancial support to Antarctic surveying projects establishing Antarctic research stations and modifying software and hardware relevant to Antarctic missions Tencent Inc. has pledged to raise society's awareness of global warming. Leveraging its platform and products Tencent will bring news and scientific findings of Antarictic missions to society and promote environmentalism. Mr. Guo's journey to Antarctica is also aimed at drafting concrete plans for cooperation among relevant departments in various projects.

State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping Deputy Director General Li Weisen sees Tencent's unprecedented pledge to help support Antarctic research as setting a new model of how enterprises can help push China's technology forward. Mr. Li also states that as an Internet enterprise Tencent will cooperate with the National Land Survey in a wide range of fields. For example Tencent will provide National Land Survey personnel with Internet services such as its advanced instant messaging technology and Internet technology.

Tencent Co-Chief Technology Officer Jeff Xiong states that as China's largest Internet company Tencent is an international leader in technologies such as instant massaging and mass data storage. At the end of 2007 Tencent allocated more than 100 million yuan to build the Tencent Research Institute the first research institute in China by an Internet enterprise. In addition to financial support Tencent also wishes to contribute advanced IT know-hows to Antarictic surveying endeavors.

Tencent is one of China's largest Internet enterprises. Everyday the company's QQ Instant Messsenger helps close to 300 million Internet users communicate with one another. In the journey to Antarctica Mr. Guo will bring Tencent's QQ mascot and greetings from the online community to the Antarctic Research Team. The research crew will also be given free QQ account numbers QQ Mailbox accounts and more. Tencent will also host an interactive blog between Internet users and researchers to help hundreds of millions of Internet users learn about Antarctica.