Tencent gives Alibaba a run for its money

Platform now has 938m monthly active users

Chinese online gaming and social networking group Tencent Holdings Ltd is giving its once-dominant archrival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd a run for its money in the battle for market share in the nation's lucrative mobile payment sector.

WeChat, the all-in-one super app, which offers a platform for everything from money transfers to taxi hailing and buying coffee, has garnered 938 million monthly active users, according to Tencent's first-quarter financial report released on Wednesday, doubling and eroding the customer base of Alipay, which Alibaba launched in 2004 to facilitate payments on its Taobao e-commerce platform, and the country's top payment tool by market share.