CHINA'S largest Internet company Tencent will invest 2 billion yuan (US$323 million) this year to encourage small- and medium-sized software developers to create third-party services on its open platform.

Tencent will try to create a fair and open platform for all developers, Tang Daosheng, president of social network business group of Tencent, said at a conference for developers yesterday.

More than 400,000 software applications offered by external developers are available on Tencent's open platform which covers smartphones and desktop computers.

Martin Lau, president of Tencent, said the company's popular mobile messaging software WeChat will be a platform for developers to expand their operations and reach out to users in overseas markets. WeChat has 70 million overseas users and is offered in 18 different languages.