The online payment platform Shenzhen Tenpay Co Ltd said on Tuesday it will provide mobile payment services for weixin users.

The service will be available in the fourth quarter, said Jim Lai, general manager of Tenpay, which was founded by Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The move is believed to be Tencent's first step to commercialize weixin, a smartphone-based social networking application that was also developed by Tencent and had accumulated 200 million users in 14 months.

"Mobile payment will be a vital sector for Tenpay, and the linkup with weixin will help us add users," Lai said.

Competition between online payment platforms is about to heat up as more players enter the market, he said.

This month, Tencent CEO Pony Ma pledged to further develop mobile Internet-related services and indicated weinxin would be an important gateway for Tencent to tap into the sector.

Turnover of third-party payment services nationwide hit 94 million yuan ($14.87 million) in the second quarter, 23 percent more than the first quarter, according to Analysys International.

China Daily-Agencies