Tencent, which runs QQ, the world’s largest instant messaging service, will offer users links to third-party websites and access to externally developed applications for the first time, mirroring some features of Facebook.
Martin Lau, Tencent’s president, told the Financial Times in a rare interview that the move would change the way China’s largest internet company by revenue makes money.
Tencent is testing about 10 third-party applications to run on QZone, its social network, and Tenpay, its online payment platform. It is also testing several external websites that users could link to in the way Facebook members can link to other sites with the “like” function.