BILLIONAIRE Ma Huateng, chairman of Tencent Holdings Ltd, yesterday said China's largest Internet company has "preliminary solutions" for state-owned carriers concerned that Tencent's free instant messaging application is hurting their profits.

Tencent worked with operators for the past month to resolve the situation, Ma said at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, without providing details.

Tencent's move comes as its WeChat service dents the revenue of carriers, including China Mobile Ltd, the world's largest telco by subscribers.

"With rapid development of the mobile Internet, we are now facing a big issue, which is the relationship between mobile Internet companies and the traditional wireless carriers," Ma said. "They should work together for mutual benefit."

Tencent is studying ways to commercialize the free app with more than 300 million users to generate revenue.