Line Messaging App |
Line, a messaging app created by South Korea-based Naver Corp, has
announced it has crossed the 100-million-user mark globally just 19
months after the app was originally launched. The app has been popular
in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, and several markets in South
America.
While Naver did not divulge Line’s daily or monthly active users, the
number of downloads alone puts it up there among the top mobile
messaging applications. That says a lot in an industry that many
competitors such as WhatsApp, WeChat, KakaoTalk, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Viber.
Like most other messaging apps, Line provides users free voice calls
through WiFi connection as well as instant messaging. But Line has a
goofy side, as users can send each other silly emojis and stickers from
bunnies with flames in their eyes to teddy bears juggling eggplants.
Many of these stickers are free, but users can purchase premium
stickers, which brings income to Naver as high as $3.75 million a month
as of July 2012.
Apart from selling stickers, the app earns from sponsored brand
accounts that users can befriend or follow, as well as through sponsored
sticker packs.
After becoming successful in several markets, Naver sets its sights
to the United States and is signing up celebrities such as Snoop Dogg in
an effort to attract teens and twenty-somethings into using Line.
The question now is whether Line would become a hit in America, which
has been dominated by Facebook Messenger in terms of market share and
active usage.
Source: TechCrunch
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