Tencent touts all-round social app WeChat for smartphones
The WeChat software sells on its ability to merge disparate messaging and networking services into one platform - and to cater to Chinese users
If you think weibo is the trendiest social networking platform on the mainland, you are so yesterday!
In a move away from microblog services, the in-thing among the wired generation now is a smartphone software application called Weixin, or "WeChat", to give its English name, according to its developer, Tencent Holdings.
An e-commerce and gaming giant on the mainland, Tencent is banking on the voice and text messaging, social networking and group chat app to stay ahead of rivals offering mobile internet services and applications.
"Based on the popularity of smartphones and our understanding of what users need from mobile social networks, WeChat has been welcomed by a lot of users, especially the youth and metropolitan white-collar workers," Tencent vice-president Allen Zhang Xiaolong said.
Zhang is also general manager of the company's Guangzhou Research and Development Centre, where WeChat was developed.
Tencent's latest offering is similar to WhatsApp, a US-based cross-platform mobile messaging application for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia. Between its launch in January last year and March this year, WeChat was used to make 100 million downloads, the company said.