China e-commerce company Alibaba is in discussions to buy messaging app Snapchat.

Snapchat, founded in 2011, is currently raising a round of financing that could value it at $10 billion.

The investment could increase Alibaba’s edge over its rival Tencent, which integrates e-commerce operation with its owned WeChat, with around 400 million active users.

“Because Alibaba is currently lagging behind Tencent in market share in mobile e-commerce, investing in Snapchat may be one of the company’s efforts to beat competition and win more market share on the mobile platform,” said Justin Ren, professor of technology management at Boston University’s School of Management.

Facebook has been reported to have offered $3 billion to Snapchat last year, however, CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel rejected it.