China's WeChat crosses 100 million users in international markets

Social media app that promotes voice messages WeChat said Monday that it had surpassed the 100 million registered international user account mark and that it had doubled its user base in last three months.

"We will continue to bring innovation, for example we launched the first-of-its-kind voice messaging service 'Hold-to-Talk' on the app in 2011, and we will continue to develop and enrich our user experience," said Poshu Yeung, vice president of international business group at Tencent, the company that owns WeChat.

Yeung said that several key initiatives including the WeChat 5.0 upgrade and the global Lionel Messi advertising campaign helped piqued audience interest worldwide. With the upgrade WeChat supports online payment capability for its sticker shop and a number of enhancements to enrich user experience.

Since its international debut, WeChat has been well received in Asia, quickly becoming the most popular mobile social app in India, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia across multiple smartphone operating systems, where the user base has recently gained tremendous growth. UK-based GlobalWebIndex found that WeChat was the fifth most used smartphone app worldwide.

In India, major brands like Panasonic, Cafe Coffee Day, Big Bazaar and PVR Cinemas have started their official accounts to enhance their capability to engage with customers.

India has also become another destination for international chat apps. Japanese instant messaging app Line Corp claimed that it had acquired 5 million users in India within three weeks of its launch on July 1 and aimed to double this number within a few months.

WeChat and Line have been advertising aggressively in India where Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, BlackBerry Messenger and Nimbuzz have been eating into mobile phone companies' revenue from text messages.