WeChat grabs big piece of Snapchat

Chinese internet giant Tencent is on the rise in the deficit Snapchat operator Snap. Tencent has bought a share package and thus hold a share of twelve percent, the US company said on Wednesday.

Tencent is behind China's universal messaging platform, WeChat, and recently acquired around 12 percent of Snap, according to the Snapchat operator's latest quarterly report. Tencent, therefore, bought nearly 146 million Snap shares on the stock market. A purchase price was not mentioned.

The Snap share cost recently after weak business figures about 40 percent less than the stock market debut in early March. The results of the third quarter let them break even before Wednesday on the stock market.

The messaging service Snapchat suffers from fierce competition with the world's largest social network Facebook and is not growing as strong as hoped. Even the banks, which had brought Snap stock market chart to the stock market, expressed themselves recently skeptical.

The number of Snapchat users active daily rose only five million to 178 million in the third quarter compared to the previous three months, less than expected by experts. Although sales grew by 62 percent within a year to about 208 million dollars. The loss was more than tripled to $ 443 million.

Snapchat is mainly used by younger people who appreciate their messages being deleted quickly. The company is mainly using advertising money and competes directly with Google's stock market chart showing and Facebook stock market chart. According to media reports, Tencent had already acquired shares in Snap during private financing rounds in 2012 and 2013.