Tencent Holdings Ltd on Tuesday joined hands with China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd to launch the nation's first subscriber identification module card customized for WeChat, a popular instant messaging service developed by Tencent.

The partnership is also the first tie up between a telecommunications carrier and an Internet company.

The SIM card will provide online top-up services, more traffic volume and faster Internet access to WeChat users, said a statement from Tencent. It will be available from Aug 5.