Sep 24, 2013
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., China’s largest e-commerce platform, is trying to raise the profile of its little-known smartphone messaging application, as it scrambles to generate more user traffic on mobile devices to compete against another Chinese Internet powerhouse Tencent Holdings Ltd.To deliver its Laiwang instant-messaging app to more users, Alibaba is in talks with China Telecom Corp. to preinstall the app in smartphones sold by the country’s third-largest mobile carrier, according to a person familiar with the talks. Still, the talks may face hurdles since China Telecom already has a joint venture to launch another instant-messaging app called YiChat (Yixin in Chinese) with local Internet firm NetEase Inc. China Telecom and Alibaba are also discussing various other possibilities for cooperation, the person said.
Even though Laiwang has been available to smartphone users since the end of 2012, the app only has about a million users. It faces an uphill battle against Tencent’s WeChat, a popular messaging app that has about 300 million registered users in China according to a recent estimate by Macquarie Securities.
Laiwang, available for downloading on Apple Inc.’s iPhone as well as other smartphones powered by Android, is part of Alibaba’s efforts to take on Tencent, as the two companies compete for dominance at a time when more online activities migrate to mobile devices from personal computers.
Many of Laiwang’s features – messages using text, stickers, voice and video as well as group chat – are similar to those offered by WeChat.
Source: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL