App that wants to outshine WeChat

Zhang Lei, a veteran entrepreneur based in Beijing, has a burning ambition: to grow his startup YeeCall to be even more spectacular than WeChat, Tencent Holdings Ltd's instant messaging app that metamorphosed into an all-in-one killer e-tool for its more than 800 million users worldwide.

For a start, he is betting big on instant messaging. But instead of competing directly with the Chinese internet giant, he is taking a detour. His sights are set on India.

Launched in 2015, YeeCall, an app that offers high-quality and free internet-based voice calls, claims it had more than 10 million users by the end of June, half of them in India.