Tencent Holdings Ltd, China's largest publicly traded Internet company by market capitalization, will invest heavily to promote the international presence of WeChat, the company's popular mobile messaging application.

Pony Ma, founder and chief executive officer of Tencent, said on Wednesday the company will invest heavily in marketing and popularizing its WeChat services in international markets and boost the use of the payment function of the most widely used mobile social tool in China.

"We've enhanced our leading WeChat app from a communication tool to a multi-functional platform through initiatives such as smartphone games, official accounts and payment functions over the past year.