Tencent Holdings Ltd's messaging services were by far the most popular mobile apps in China in 2016, leading steady growth in the world's largest internet and smartphone market, a report showed on Sunday.

WeChat remained the most heavily used app in the country in 2016, with almost 80 percent of the online population employing the social media service frequently, the China Internet Network Information Center said in its annual report.

Tencent's QQ took second place, while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's online platform Taobao came in third. Baidu Inc's mobile app and Alipay, the payments service run by Alibaba-affiliate Ant Financial, rounded out the top five.