My first OICQ penguin was this small CD wallet. When I bought him from an Internet auction I had no idea who he was, but when I later came across more penguins like this I got curious. It turned he is the mascot of OICQ, the most popular free instant messaging computer program in China. For more info on OICQ check Wikipedia's article.
June 6th, 2019
Additional update and an anecdote. These days I find it hilarious that I had to track down and investigate the origins of the OICQ penguin. Back in 2007 very few around these parts of the world knew what I was talking about.
Fast forward ten years to 2017. Even though these penguins are on display, it's been ages since I heard of OICQ. Then I popped in the BluRay of Kong: Skull Island – and one of the very first things I saw, was this;
My mouth fell hanging open when this big blockbuster opens to company logo that was a silhouette of that one obscure penguin I had to painstakingly track down back ten years ago. And now its promoting the biggest darn megacorporation in all of China, Tencent! It seems Tencent acquired OICQ and renamed it 'Tencent QQ' – while apparently falling in love with the penguin.
I mean, can't blame Tencent for adopting this guy as their mascot! 👍
Added: 2007-10-30
