Tencent tells 'Mark Zuckerberg' to find real friends on WeChat

The new TV ad from WeChat in South Africa is clearly a bit of fun.

But the fact that it's poking fun directly at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demonstrates how seriously giant internet companies such as Tencent and Facebook are taking the mobile messaging market.

Perhaps that goes without saying given Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp.

But with Tencent's WeChat now claiming over 355 million users and rapidly looking to scale its international user base - just as Kakao and LINE are doing - it shows the potential and the competition in what is expected to be a very lucrative zero-sum market.