China Mobile Tuesday formally launched an instant messaging (IM) commercial service under its own brand and moved into a market dominated by Microsoft's MSN division and Hong Kong-listed Tencent Holding Ltd.

Called Fetion, China Mobile's IM tool enables handset users to chat with other Fetion customers over the mobile Internet offered by its GPRS network, either with a mobile phone or PC. The interface is similar to MSN messenger and Tencent's popular QQ.

China Mobile last year started a pre-commercial trial of the IM service, initially branded Femoo. At the end of the 11-month trial in April, it had signed up 20.68 million subscribers, said company vice-president Sha Yuejia.

Fetion's launch underlines the growing convergence of telephone and Internet networks.

"Any service that can cross over traditional telephone and Internet networks would be a very promising application," said Lu Tingjie, a professor with the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and a telecom industry veteran.

The Fetion IM tool has already been embedded with downloads of Colorful Ring Back Tone (CRBT) and an online shop where subscribers can buy China Mobile's service offerings and check phone bills, Sha said.

"We are expecting to add a number of new offerings such as games and video phone calls to Fetion," he said.

Fetion is expected to apply competitive pressure on MSN and Shenzhen-based Tencent, which have been seeking to expand their IM services to the mobile sector.

Market researchers estimated that Tencent has about 7 million mobile QQ users. For mobile MSN messenger, the figure is estimated at 300,000.

When using the mobile IM tool, users pay for the mobile Internet traffic over the GPRS network. MSN has been charging users an additional 10 yuan for the mobile MSN messenger but earlier this year scrapped the fees. Tencent currently charges 5 yuan each month.

China Mobile said it will not charge the monthly fees initially and has yet to set a timetable for future charging.

Mobile phone maker Motorola said 11 of its handset models are already pre-installed with Fetion software.