This article was published on May 14, 2014

Messaging app WeChat climbs to 396 million monthly active users


Messaging app WeChat climbs to 396 million monthly active users

Tencent today published its financials for the first quarter of 2014 and hidden inside was a new milestone for its WeChat messaging app.

The cross-platform service has risen to 396 million monthly active users, which is up from 355 million the previous quarter. The new record, which covers both WeChat and Weixin – the version Tencent offers in China – is up 87 percent from the same three-month period last year.

It’s unclear where WeChat is seeing the greatest amount of growth, however. In its earnings report, Tencent said it “continued to drive user engagement” for the app internationally, but stopped short of naming any specific countries. While WeChat continues to dominate in China, the larger question is whether it can challenge apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in the West.

Just last week, WeChat for iOS was updated with a new message translation feature which staff at TNW were rather smitten by.

Read Next: More than messaging: Why you should stop comparing WeChat to WhatsApp / WeChat isn’t planning to make money outside of China (yet), sees US as ‘hardest market’ to crack

Tencent [via Tech in Asia]

Headline image via Bryanlyt

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