Line messenger rolls out big in Tokyo

Last Tuesday, we were supposed to fly to Tokyo to attend the Fam Tour hosted by Line in Japan. Unfortunately we could not make it due to conflict of schedules and, besides, the disastrous weather could have also stopped us from taking off.

During the annual business conference, Line experienced over 460% growth. Here are the stats shared with us about the new messaging app:

1. Number of registered users.
* 230 million people worldwide (up by 460% over August 2012)
– 47 million in Japan, 18 million in Thailand, 17 million in Taiwan, 15 million in Spain, and 14 million in Indonesia

2. Communication using messages and sticker.s
* Number of messages sent daily 7 billion (up by 440% over August 2012)
* Number of stickers sent daily 1 billion (up by 488% over August 2012)

3. Usage of Timeline feature.
* Number of unique users monthly (global) (in July 2013) : 73 million (up by 330% over August 2012)
– Japan (in July 2013) : 29 million (up by 220% over August 2012)

* Daily communication (total number of posts, Likes and comments) : 54 million

Line has also announced new features to be rolled out later this year. This includes the ff.:

LINE will be adopting a new Video Call feature in addition to its voice call and messaging functions. Users can enjoy free video calls on supported devices (iPhone, Android and Windows and Mac PCs) and have face-to-face conversations.

“Line Music” is a music streaming service that enables users to purchase music of all genres within the LINE app, including J-pop, K-pop, and of course Western music. Songs purchased through LINE MUSIC can be shared with the user’s LINE friends, proposing a brand new way to enjoy music that is only possible through LINE. This service will be launched first in Japan, with a global rollout following shortly.

Lastly, the “Line Mall” is an e-commerce (electronic commerce) service optimized for the smartphone. It has been structured so all actions can be performed efficiently within the app itself. LINE MALL will deliver a revolutionary shopping experience, in which anybody can buy and sell anytime or anywhere as long as they have a smartphone.

We’ve been using Line for quite a while now and migrated into it because of the lively environment and the fun stickers we often use. One of the more compelling features of Line is that it also allows you to do messaging on desktop PCs aside from the mobile app in various platforms.