THE BRIDGE

Yukari Mitsuhashi

Yukari Mitsuhashi

Yukari is a tech writer based in Tokyo, with previous experience working with a few startups in Japan. She also supervised the Japanese caption and narration of the movie “Social Network”. She aspires to contribute to Japanese startup scene by what she does best: writing. Find her on Twitter, at @yukari77.

http://www.techdoll.jp

Articles

Smartphone penetration at 40% in Japan, survey says iPhone most favored

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If you hop on any train in Tokyo, you’ll notice that everywhere you look people are using a smartphone. But what is the actual smartphone penetration rate in Japan? I recently stumbled upon some data by Impress R&D where the company surveyed 85,000 internet users about their smartphone usage. According to the survey, the smartphone penetration rate in Japan was 39.8% as of November 2012. That’s a significant increase from 22.9% in October 2011, and about a 10% increase from May of the same year, as you can see in the chart above. Most men and women in their 20s own smartphones: about 58.9% for men and 58.5% for women. Men in their 30s are the next highest demographic at 53.7%, followed by teenage boys. Japan loves the iPhone ¶ So what kind of smartphone do they use? It turns out Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone is the most popular with 31.5%. It’s followed by an assortment of Android runners-up: 12.1% have Sharp’s Aquos phone, 12% have Sony’s Xperia, 7.2% are using the Samsung Galaxy, and 6.0% opt for Fujitsu’s Arrows. In terms of operating systems, iOS accounts for 33.1% and Android makes up 66.4% — that’s a 5.5% increase for Android…

sdjapan_smartphonepenetration2012

If you hop on any train in Tokyo, you’ll notice that everywhere you look people are using a smartphone. But what is the actual smartphone penetration rate in Japan? I recently stumbled upon some data by Impress R&D where the company surveyed 85,000 internet users about their smartphone usage.

According to the survey, the smartphone penetration rate in Japan was 39.8% as of November 2012. That’s a significant increase from 22.9% in October 2011, and about a 10% increase from May of the same year, as you can see in the chart above. Most men and women in their 20s own smartphones: about 58.9% for men and 58.5% for women. Men in their 30s are the next highest demographic at 53.7%, followed by teenage boys.

Japan loves the iPhone

So what kind of smartphone do they use? It turns out Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone is the most popular with 31.5%. It’s followed by an assortment of Android runners-up: 12.1% have Sharp’s Aquos phone, 12% have Sony’s Xperia, 7.2% are using the Samsung Galaxy, and 6.0% opt for Fujitsu’s Arrows. In terms of operating systems, iOS accounts for 33.1% and Android makes up 66.4% — that’s a 5.5% increase for Android since last year for those of you keeping score at home.

Impress also asked about respondents’ use of social media. 38.7% responded that they use Facebook (compared to 25.4% last year) and 37.9% use Twitter (40.6% last year). According to another survey focusing on Facebook usage in Asian countries, Japan ranked fifth with 16.35 million estimated users [1]. Surprisingly, more and more people are using Facebook, and many of them appear to be moving on from Twitter.

The ever-growing mobile chat application Line place placed third with 33.9% of respondents using the service. Although in a recent MMD Laboratory survey of 670 respondents, Line came out as the most favored social service.

The most common usage of smartphones is texting or email according to 28% of respondents, followed by browsing the web and talking 14.2%, followed by social media at 13.2%.


  1. SocialBakers currently puts the number at about 13.8 million, so take both these totals with a grain of salt.  ↩

Traditional Japanese art meets mobile: Paper iPhone cases from Kyoto

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If you have ever visited Japanese variety stores like LOFT or Tokyu-Hands, you’ve likely seen the tremendous choice of iPhone cases. There are even websites like Case-Mate or Society6 where you can buy uniquely designed iPhone cases which are not mass produced. But I recently stumbled across one case that could be the first made of paper — or if not the very first, perhaps the sturdiest paper case. It’s called Musubi, which means “to tie” in Japanese. It’s a product by Kyoto-based manufacturer Suzuki Shofudo [1]. The case is made from a special robust paper using stereo-chemical paper pressing technology to mold it into the shape of an iPhone. To use it, you just need to place the paper case on the front and back of the iPhone, and then attach three stickers on the sides to hold the papers together. And that’s it, you’re done! The paper appears pretty thick although I’m not sure how much protection it would provide. There are five designs included in the Musubi package, allowing you to dress up your iPhone differently depending on your mood. The designs are traditional Japanese patterns that symbolizes relationships between people. For five cases, the price is…

paperiPhonecase

If you have ever visited Japanese variety stores like LOFT or Tokyu-Hands, you’ve likely seen the tremendous choice of iPhone cases. There are even websites like Case-Mate or Society6 where you can buy uniquely designed iPhone cases which are not mass produced.

But I recently stumbled across one case that could be the first made of paper — or if not the very first, perhaps the sturdiest paper case. It’s called Musubi, which means “to tie” in Japanese. It’s a product by Kyoto-based manufacturer Suzuki Shofudo [1].

The case is made from a special robust paper using stereo-chemical paper pressing technology to mold it into the shape of an iPhone. To use it, you just need to place the paper case on the front and back of the iPhone, and then attach three stickers on the sides to hold the papers together. And that’s it, you’re done! The paper appears pretty thick although I’m not sure how much protection it would provide.

There are five designs included in the Musubi package, allowing you to dress up your iPhone differently depending on your mood. The designs are traditional Japanese patterns that symbolizes relationships between people. For five cases, the price is 1890 yen (about $20), which is generally less than the price of one iPhone case you can buy at a store. The cases are available for both iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5.

paperiPhonecase2

The case can be bought online through the Suzuki Shofudo website if you’re in Japan, or if you’re passing through Kyoto, their store is here. We’ll let you know if they become available to overseas buyers. I’m sure that the demand for such a slick design would be pretty high!


  1. More details can be found on their website (Japanese). See this pdf for starters.  ↩

Top 5: Japan’s Cutest Mobile Apps

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“Kawaii” is a word you’ll hear from young Japanese girls all too often. It can be roughly translated as ‘cute’ – but times ten or even a hundred. Japanese female youth culture can not be described without it. Anything can be kawaii, ranging from pets to behaviors to boys. So it’s no surprise that we can also find kawaii mobile apps in Japan. Here are just a few of the popular ones. Fril ¶ Fril is a fancy online flea market for female students in high school or college. Within a month of its release, the app was downloaded over 5,000 times and the number of items sold exceeded 10,000. Since most of the users are students, the average price of items is pretty low, at around 2,000 to 3,000 yen (or $22 to $34). Surprisingly Fril is an all-guy team and a graduate startup from Tokyo-based Open Network Lab incubator. Over 100 interviews with their target users have paid off, because Fril is definitely one of the most well-designed app for girls. It is currently available for iOS  and Android if you’d like to give it a try. Snapeee ¶ Snapeee is a purikura app, which means it lets…

tokyo-game-show-2012

Kawaii” is a word you’ll hear from young Japanese girls all too often. It can be roughly translated as ‘cute’ – but times ten or even a hundred. Japanese female youth culture can not be described without it. Anything can be kawaii, ranging from pets to behaviors to boys. So it’s no surprise that we can also find kawaii mobile apps in Japan. Here are just a few of the popular ones.

Fril

スクリーンショット 2013-01-24 15.30.31

Fril is a fancy online flea market for female students in high school or college. Within a month of its release, the app was downloaded over 5,000 times and the number of items sold exceeded 10,000. Since most of the users are students, the average price of items is pretty low, at around 2,000 to 3,000 yen (or $22 to $34). Surprisingly Fril is an all-guy team and a graduate startup from Tokyo-based Open Network Lab incubator. Over 100 interviews with their target users have paid off, because Fril is definitely one of the most well-designed app for girls. It is currently available for iOS  and Android if you’d like to give it a try.

Snapeee

スクリーンショット 2013-01-24 15.33.31

Snapeee is a purikura app, which means it lets you take photo booth style pictures with many decorative features. Released in May of 2011, the app has attracted users not just in Japan but all across Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao. People in other parts of Asia really like “kawaii” things too, and half a year after its release, the app has been downloaded over 800,000 times with half of those from overseas. Snapeee adds decorative stamps, brushes, and frames to the app everyday. Decorated photos can be shared on different social network such as Facebook, Twitter, mixi, GREE, Ameba, Renren, and Sina Weibo. The application is available for both iOS and Android.

Decopic

スクリーンショット 2013-01-24 15.35.13

A product of Community Factory Inc, Decopic is another popular purikura app and is a competitor of the afore-mentioned Snapeee. It was recently announced that it had reached the lofty milestone of 12 million downloads, which is certainly an impressive mark for any mobile app. The company was bought by Yahoo Japan in September of last year, for an estimated price of one billion yen (about $11 million) [1]. Yahoo Japan was eager to get into mobile, and successfully obtained Decopic’s eight million users.

The app can be distinguished by its unique user interface, as it is not designed like a typical smartphone app. It’s more like the purikura machines to which its target users are accustomed. It’s available for both iOS and Android.

iQon

スクリーンショット 2013-01-24 15.36.34

iQon is a fashion community that allows users to create magazine-like collages of fashion styles, sort of the Japanese equivalent to Polyvore. iQon was originally a web service only, but it released an iPhone app in February of last year. With over one million visitors as of March, 2012, the number of collages posted on the service has increased by a factor of twenty. The main users are in their twenties, and they access the app nine times a day on average. It’s available for both iOS and Android.

Nameco

スクリーンショット 2013-01-24 15.37.10

The tweets and posts originating from within this app at one point practically filled my entire Twitter stream. Nameco is a game that requires users to grow and harvest mushrooms, and it has been downloaded over 13,000,000 times as of June, 2012, with a 4.5 star rating on the iTunes app store. The huge popularity of Nameco is due to its uber-cute mushroom character. There are over one hundred types of physical merchandise items for the character, and that certainly puts it in a lucrative space as we have seen from Rovio with Angry Birds. It has even managed to collaborate with Sanrio’s Hello Kitty. The app is currently available for both iOS and Android.

There are so many of these apps that it’s impossible to cover them all in just one article. But if you’re looking to reach Japanese or Asian girls in their twenties, these apps are certainly a good model to follow.

This is part of our cute Japanese apps series (RSS), examining a trend of ‘kawaii’ success stories emerging from Japan’s mobile space.


  1. That estimated price is according to TechCrunch Japan.  ↩

Japan’s high-tech vending machine is smarter. But is it better?

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As you pass through train stations in Tokyo, you may stumble upon Acure vending machines with bright 47 inch digital screens. These Acure machines are a product of the JR East Water Business Co. Ltd [1], and they are anything but normal. They use facial recognition technology to detect the age and sex of whoever is standing in front of them, and they recommend the product determined to be best suited for that person. When recommending a drink, Acure also considers the current temperature, the time of the day, and even the season. So it might serve up a steaming hot can of coffee on a cold winter morning, or an icy soda on a hot summer day. The vending machine includes other interesting features such as filling in new beverages in place of sold out ones when a spot becomes available. It also stores demographic data of its users which can later be used to help with product development and sales. In fact, a new apple juice “Aomori-Ringo 100” (‘ringo’ means ‘apple’ in Japanese) through analyzing the accumulated data on Acure. The company expected fruit juice to be preferred by women, but they were surprised to find out that…

acurevendingmachine

As you pass through train stations in Tokyo, you may stumble upon Acure vending machines with bright 47 inch digital screens. These Acure machines are a product of the JR East Water Business Co. Ltd [1], and they are anything but normal.

They use facial recognition technology to detect the age and sex of whoever is standing in front of them, and they recommend the product determined to be best suited for that person. When recommending a drink, Acure also considers the current temperature, the time of the day, and even the season. So it might serve up a steaming hot can of coffee on a cold winter morning, or an icy soda on a hot summer day.

The vending machine includes other interesting features such as filling in new beverages in place of sold out ones when a spot becomes available. It also stores demographic data of its users which can later be used to help with product development and sales. In fact, a new apple juice “Aomori-Ringo 100” (‘ringo’ means ‘apple’ in Japanese) through analyzing the accumulated data on Acure. The company expected fruit juice to be preferred by women, but they were surprised to find out that men also buy fruit juice in late afternoons to night time. The company carefully chose a package that would appeal to both sexes.

More than just a novelty

But are these smarter vending machines really any better than traditional ones? According to Acure they are indeed a big improvement, selling three times more than regular vending machines. So far the user demographic of Acure is about 63% men and 37% women.

Men in their 20s and 30s are the machine’s biggest fans, and Acure knows exactly when and what they buy. Typically they begin their mornings with a can of black coffee, usually moving on to a different kind of energy drink depending on the time of the day. RedBull sells more in the late afternoon to night time, for example.

The company is searching for other uses of it’s technology too. An Acure machine for general goods was placed in a newly opened mall just recently. These remotely controllable vending machines can be a life saver in times of crisis as well, as they can be instructed to give away all stored beverages in times of disaster.

acurevendingmachine_generalgoods


  1. A solely owned subsidiary of the East Japan Railway Company.  ↩

Is your iPhone dirty? Japan has a miniature zamboni robot that’ll clean it!

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In a recent survey, 88% of smartphone users responded that they are often bothered by finger prints and other marks on their screens. And since not everyone has a piece of microfiber readily on hand, this is clearly a first world problem that absolutely must be solved. And fittingly, we have an equally first world solution. Use Automee-S, a tiny robotic cleaner that was just announced by TOMY Company, Ltd. Home cleaning robots like the Roomba are pretty popular in Japan. And TOMY applied the same concept to smartphones and tablets. In fact, it was way back in 1985 when they built their first cleaning robot named the SO-G (which means “cleaning” in Japanese) which uses brooms to clean. The company describes the Automee as an invention that combines practicality and playfulness. When you turn it on, it is propelled by three wheels on the bottom, and cleaning paper wipes off all fingerprints and oil on the screen. This toy is smart enough to detect the edge of whatever device it is cleaning and turns itself around to avoid from falling off. In this way, the Automee covers the entire surface, making sure everything is nice and clean. If you’d…

automee-s-2
A zamboni for your iPad or iPhone!

In a recent survey, 88% of smartphone users responded that they are often bothered by finger prints and other marks on their screens. And since not everyone has a piece of microfiber readily on hand, this is clearly a first world problem that absolutely must be solved. And fittingly, we have an equally first world solution.

Use Automee-S, a tiny robotic cleaner that was just announced by TOMY Company, Ltd. Home cleaning robots like the Roomba are pretty popular in Japan. And TOMY applied the same concept to smartphones and tablets. In fact, it was way back in 1985 when they built their first cleaning robot named the SO-G (which means “cleaning” in Japanese) which uses brooms to clean.

automee-s-1

The company describes the Automee as an invention that combines practicality and playfulness. When you turn it on, it is propelled by three wheels on the bottom, and cleaning paper wipes off all fingerprints and oil on the screen. This toy is smart enough to detect the edge of whatever device it is cleaning and turns itself around to avoid from falling off. In this way, the Automee covers the entire surface, making sure everything is nice and clean. If you’d like to see it in action, there’s a video over on the company’s website.

The approximate cleaning time is four minutes for smartphones (12cm x 6cm) and eight minutes for tablets (24cm x 19cm). Automee itself is about 7 cm in width and weighs 82g. It comes in four color variations: orange, blue, pink, and white. The two circles in front of the robot intended to mimic eyes, giving it a pet-like feel. The company is even planning to release other kinds in the future such as trains, cars, and animals.

Automee-S will be sold in a range of retail stores all over Japan, as well as online. It costs 1,575 yen (or about $17) and goes on sale on March 28 [1].

automee-s-3


  1. For those who read the headline and wondered what a ‘zamboni’ is, here you go.  ↩

Build your own iPhone-controlled RC car!

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For many people, driving a radio-controlled car is one of their most treasured childhood memories. Even big boys still find the experience intriguing, as you often see RC car competitions held all over the world. But what if you could build your own car and drive it with your iPhone or iPad? Actually, Japan Trust Technology, Inc has invented just such a car. It’s named Tsuku-Raji, a moniker which combines the Japanese words for “make” and “radio.” All you need to do is build your dream car on top of the 9.5cm x 4.7cm base unit. The resulting RC vehicle can then be controlled using their dedicated iOS app (for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch). The iPhone can even be used as a steering wheel by turning on the gyro mode! Charging the car and the transmitter is quick and easy, simply by connecting to your computer with a USB cable. Tsuku-Raji comes in two colors, black and red, and is priced at 3,980 yen (about $43) for just the car, and 4,480 yen ($48) with the USB AC adapter included. If you’d like to order one, you can do so on the JTT website if you’re in Japan. We’ll…

rc-car

For many people, driving a radio-controlled car is one of their most treasured childhood memories. Even big boys still find the experience intriguing, as you often see RC car competitions held all over the world. But what if you could build your own car and drive it with your iPhone or iPad?

Actually, Japan Trust Technology, Inc has invented just such a car. It’s named Tsuku-Raji, a moniker which combines the Japanese words for “make” and “radio.” All you need to do is build your dream car on top of the 9.5cm x 4.7cm base unit. The resulting RC vehicle can then be controlled using their dedicated iOS app (for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch). The iPhone can even be used as a steering wheel by turning on the gyro mode!

Charging the car and the transmitter is quick and easy, simply by connecting to your computer with a USB cable. Tsuku-Raji comes in two colors, black and red, and is priced at 3,980 yen (about $43) for just the car, and 4,480 yen ($48) with the USB AC adapter included. If you’d like to order one, you can do so on the JTT website if you’re in Japan. We’ll let you know if they become available to overseas buyers.

Kids can’t get enough of the iPhone, and it goes without saying that they love RC cars. This product is the perfect combination of the two, and is sure to be a big hit. Parents will certainly be fans as well, as the building process should help foster creativity.

Check out the demonstration of Tsuku-Raji in the video clip below.

In Japan, there is no escaping Rakuten’s reach

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Rakuten-Ichiba, Japan’s biggest online mall, celebrated its 15th anniversary last May. Rakuten (JSD:4755) originally launched back in May of 1997, with just thirteen online stores. It took them seven years and five months to reach 10,000 stores. Now, the total number of stores exceeds 38,000 and the total items sold is over 95.6 million. Rakuten has managed to reach over half of the total population of Japan, reaching about 75 million registered users out of the 130 million who live in the country. According to Rakuten’s 15th year anniversary announcement, until 2003 what sold on Rakuten were items that could only be bought online. In 2004, more consumers were buying food and gourmet items. It wasn’t until around 2008 when people began to buy fashion and apparel online 1. And in 2010, offerings expanded further as consumers began to buy everyday necessities such as water and rice online. Rakuten has essentially overseen the entire history of online shopping in Japan. It is more difficult to find what’s not available on Rakuten than to find what is available. From electronics, to toys, to beauty products – almost anything can be found on Rakuten. The main categories in order of popularity are…

rakuten-logo

Rakuten-Ichiba, Japan’s biggest online mall, celebrated its 15th anniversary last May. Rakuten (JSD:4755) originally launched back in May of 1997, with just thirteen online stores. It took them seven years and five months to reach 10,000 stores. Now, the total number of stores exceeds 38,000 and the total items sold is over 95.6 million.

Rakuten has managed to reach over half of the total population of Japan, reaching about 75 million registered users out of the 130 million who live in the country. According to Rakuten’s 15th year anniversary announcement, until 2003 what sold on Rakuten were items that could only be bought online. In 2004, more consumers were buying food and gourmet items. It wasn’t until around 2008 when people began to buy fashion and apparel online 1. And in 2010, offerings expanded further as consumers began to buy everyday necessities such as water and rice online.

Rakuten has essentially overseen the entire history of online shopping in Japan.

It is more difficult to find what’s not available on Rakuten than to find what is available. From electronics, to toys, to beauty products – almost anything can be found on Rakuten. The main categories in order of popularity are food, women’s fashion, daily necessities/stationary, furniture, and men’s fashion.

According to a mobile usage survey conducted by Ceres Inc., 84.2% of respondents have engaged in online shopping. But where are they shopping? It turns out Rakuten is the most popular destination, favored by 68.5% of respondents. Amazon and Yahoo Shopping followed, with 58.0% and 38.6% respectively 2. One of the most remarkable things about Rakuten’s user base is the survey says it appears to be favored by older segments of the population, as you can see below:

Ages Percentage
10-19 34.9
20-29 65.6
30-39 72.1
40-49 72.1
50-59 77.2

In contrast, Amazon is preferred by younger users. The fact that Japan’s population is growing older and older is amazingly working in Rakuten’s favor.

As far as Rakuten’s website design goes, I am not their biggest fan. It shows far too much information at once and is much in need of an overhaul. But similar to Craigslist, people appear to have adjusted to the confusing and cluttered design – and it might even be a risk to change that now. But the design issue is not stopping more and more stores from joining Rakuten’s mall. And they still have lots of room to grow, since the online rate of the retail industry in Japan is only 2.8% 3. The rest are still small stores selling offline.

When you search for an item to buy, whether on Google or Yahoo, Rakuten items always show up on the first page of the search result. Popular blogs using Rakuten’s affiliate service make it difficult to escape, as their sidebar widgets remind you of products you may have been recently browsing on Rakuten. The company sends out millions of newsletters by store or by item category.

Here in Japan Rakuten dominates e-commerce, and if you frequent the Japanese web, there is practically no escape from its reach. As they expand abroad, it will be interesting to see how far that reach can extend!


This is part of our ‘Japanese internet in-depth’ series (RSS). Stay tuned for more features that aim to explain what makes the internet unique in Japan.


  1. A competing fashion e-commerce service called Zozotown launched in December of 2004, they were a bit ahead of their time, although with the right vision, successfully turned itself into the biggest online fashion mall.
  2. Another recent survey of elderly consumers found that 90% of respondents use Rakuten, followed by Amazon at 55.2%, and Yahoo Shopping at 27.0%.
  3. Report published by Ministry of Economy.

With 100 million users, LINE is the Japanese Facebook

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Line, one of the most popular smartphone apps in Japan, recently reached the 100 million user milestone. The free chat application was made by NHN Japan Corporation, and launched back in June of 2011. The app makes use of the user’s phone directory, allowing them to get connected with people they actually know in real life. Sound familiar? Yes, Line is in many ways aspiring to be Japan’s Facebook — the primary difference being that Line is a social service born entirely on mobile. Line is gaining popularity around the Asia region with about half of it’s users coming from outside Japan. Many celebrities in Japan are using the app including current prime minister Abe Shinzo who joined the service in January. The biggest reason behind the app’s success lies in the timing of its release. It came during a time when not-so-tech-savvy mainstream users began switching from feature phones to smartphones. With a completely different and unfamiliar tool, people turned to Line for help. With Line, all you needed to get connected with friends was their phone number. And everyone with a phone has that already. Ubiquity, and beyond! Line was first adopted by younger users but gradually gained…

sd-line-image-press

Line, one of the most popular smartphone apps in Japan, recently reached the 100 million user milestone. The free chat application was made by NHN Japan Corporation, and launched back in June of 2011. The app makes use of the user’s phone directory, allowing them to get connected with people they actually know in real life. Sound familiar? Yes, Line is in many ways aspiring to be Japan’s Facebook — the primary difference being that Line is a social service born entirely on mobile.

Line is gaining popularity around the Asia region with about half of it’s users coming from outside Japan. Many celebrities in Japan are using the app including current prime minister Abe Shinzo who joined the service in January. The biggest reason behind the app’s success lies in the timing of its release. It came during a time when not-so-tech-savvy mainstream users began switching from feature phones to smartphones. With a completely different and unfamiliar tool, people turned to Line for help. With Line, all you needed to get connected with friends was their phone number. And everyone with a phone has that already.

Ubiquity, and beyond!

Line was first adopted by younger users but gradually gained popularity over mainstream users including seniors. With over 100 million users, it is the new digital marketing platform. To better take advantage of Line, many companies are conducting user surveys. A survey of married couples and their usage of Line was a particularly interesting one. It targeted 800 married men and women of age 20 to 40. 39.5% responded that the app increased communication with their spouse. 29.4% of respondents answered that their spousal relationship has improved since using the app.

line tenki
Line also launched Line Tenki, or Line Weather this past week

But since last summer, the chat app has become more of a platform than just smartphone chat application. NHN began providing a service named Line Channel in July of 2012, a year after the app’s initial release. On Line Channel, users are able to enjoy games, fortune-telling, and even discount coupons. One game, Line Pop, has been downloaded over 20 million times worldwide as of January 2013, just two months after it’s release.

But there is a cutthroat war brewing in the chat application market. Line is no doubt the pioneer in Japan, but DeNA’s Comm and Korea’s KakaoTalk have jumped in the ring recently too. At the end of 2012, Comm had been downloaded more than five million times since it’s October launch. Kakao Talk had about 70 million users as of December 2012, with 18 million of those overseas, and about 4 million of those in Japan.

We were in touch with the CEO of Viber this week as well, who pointed out that they are hoping to make a renewed push in Asia where the app has 50 million users in total. Interestingly, six million of those are in Japan.

But still, Line’s dominance is pretty secure at home, with about 41.5 million users in Japan. Stay tuned to see how it fares abroad this year.


This is part of our ‘Japanese internet in-depth’ series (RSS). Stay tuned for more features that aim to explain what makes the internet unique in Japan.

For more information on the growth of Line, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.