(Yicai Global) July 25 -- China Mobile, the country's largest wireless carrier, will close its instant messaging service He-Fetion on Sept. 30, losing in competition to Tencent's WeChat.

He-Fetion users can still log in to the firm's new Mobile Office for their corporate needs, the Beijing-based company said in a statement recently without disclosing any reasons for the termination of the former application.

Launched in 2007, He-Fetion became popular with its advantage of sending free SMS messages. After a few years, it had as many as 500 million registered users and close to 100 million active users.

But as Tencent debuted WeChat in 2011, He-Fetion's star started waning.After changing the name to He-Fetion from Fetion, China Mobile has tried to transform the platform into a corporate one since 2018.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi