Jim Lai, general manager of Tenpay, said in November that the company would add payment services to WeChat within two months, allowing users to scan codes at stores and make payments with WeChat.
Ma also said in November that Tencent planned to trial entertainment, advertising and other transactions on WeChat. The company, however, still had no plans to introduce revenue-generating measures for the service in the short term.
Weibo, on the other hand, accounted for 16 percent of Sina's total advertising revenue — $120.6 million — in the third quarter of 2012, up from 10 percent in the second quarter, according to Chao. Advertising is Weibo's major source of revenue.
Shi Jialong, a Hong Kong-based analyst with CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, said he thought Weibo was still very competitive.
"Either of the two services can replace the other as they serve different functions," he said.
"If Sina sees a drop in its user growth rate, it may be because of a failure in execution or content, rather than pressure from WeChat. But so far, I haven't seen any signs of a drop in its quality."
Last month, Sina restructured its business units, making Weibo one of two major business divisions in an effort to consolidate functions scattered across different departments and enable it to respond better in the mobile Internet sector, it said.
Mobile Internet is WeChat's main battlefield, while half of Weibo's traffic is from mobile users.
Black-headed gulls come to Kunming for winter
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