Tencent wields WeChat ace in battle for online entertainment

Cash-rich Alibaba, meanwhile, has teamed up with top tier content providers

Published Wed, May 13, 2015 · 09:50 PM

Beijing

IN A multi-billion dollar dogfight with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd for leadership in China's online entertainment market, mobile messaging app WeChat is Tencent Holdings Ltd's trump card.

The wildly popular app allows Tencent to channel 500 million monthly active users to its entertainment services, a huge consumer base for subscriptions or marketing - pay dirt for media and advertising partners.

Combined with a willingness to throw cash at top-tier film, television, game and music content, Tencent has locked down exclusive deals with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, eager to piggyback on the US$190 billion Chinese group's growing success.

Shenzhen-based Tencent, whose WeChat and QQ social networks are as ubiquitous in China as Facebook Inc is elsewhere, has spent billions of dollars in recent years building up its content library and on stakes in entertainment firms, though the company declines t…