He notes that WeChat is surpassing QQ, its wildly popular instant messaging service in China, in its adoption rate internationally partly because the name of the service was changed from Weixin or micro message to the easily pronounceable WeChat.

FORBES: Tencent's WeChat Speeding Past QQ In Uptake

In the case of WeChat, I do worry that greed from the Chinese telcos will ultimately hurt or kill the service.

FORBES: Gov't, Rivals Assault Tencent WeChat

"We thought maybe it would take six months, " he said, but in fact WeChat was out within two months and it has proved far more popular than Xiaomi's service.

WSJ: China's Tencent Outperforms Its Western Peers

According to Tencent, whose services include instant messaging service QQ, microblogging site Tencent Weibo - which is similar to Twitter - and online games, WeChat has close to 300 million users.

BBC: Tencent