(Yicai Global) Sept. 6 -- Shares of Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings soared on reports that its social media platform WeChat, with 1.25 billion users, was planning to launch a personal cloud storage payment service.

Tencent Holdings [HKG: 0700] shares jumped 3.69 percent in early trading today, before closing up 3.48 percent at HKD505 (USD65). The Hang Seng Index gained 1.01 percent for the day.

WeChat may charge users on a yearly basis for this service. The price is likely to be around CNY180 (USD27.88) per year for iOS system users and CNY130 for Android system users, China Daily reported on Sept. 4. But the exact amount of data that can be stored for this price is yet to be determined.

People familiar with the matter said the project is still in progress, and details aren't immediately available. Tencent had yet to respond as of press time.

Tencent also recently filed a trademark application for WeChat Cloud, pending substantive review, according to corporate data platform Tianyancha.

At present, WeChat only supports migrating chat history to another phone and backing up chat history to a computer. If the device is lost, you can’t recover unbacked-up data.

WeChat had 1.25 billion monthly active users by the end of June, according to Tencent’s second-quarter earnings report.

Apple’s iCloud, Tencent’s QQ, and Baidu Cloud have all introduced paid cloud storage services.

Editor: Peter Thomas