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Japan’s Line Corporation to launch mobile movie app for kids

Line

Masaru Ikeda 2014.03.21

Japanese internet company Line Corporation announced yesterday that it is planning to soon launch an iOS movie app for pre-school kids and their parents. The app is called ‘Line Kids Doga’, and the company intends to use it to provide child-safe content. The app will provide more than 1,500 movies across 28 animation titles including Doraemon, Pokemon, Pretty Cure, Anne of Green Gables, and Thomas and Friends. The service has two pricing plans. The freemium version lets you to watch movies up to 40 minutes a day for free, and you can earn more minutes by persuading yout Line contacts to give them to you. There are two subscription options: If you pay 500 yen ($5) a month, you can watch any of 300 episodes from selected video programs. If you pay 400 yen ($4) a month, you can watch any episodes of one program that you have selected. The company will introduce an Android version this coming spring. via Venture Now

Japanese internet company Line Corporation announced yesterday that it is planning to soon launch an iOS movie app for pre-school kids and their parents. The app is called ‘Line Kids Doga’, and the company intends to use it to provide child-safe content.

The app will provide more than 1,500 movies across 28 animation titles including Doraemon, Pokemon, Pretty Cure, Anne of Green Gables, and Thomas and Friends.

The service has two pricing plans. The freemium version lets you to watch movies up to 40 minutes a day for free, and you can earn more minutes by persuading yout Line contacts to give them to you. There are two subscription options: If you pay 500 yen ($5) a month, you can watch any of 300 episodes from selected video programs. If you pay 400 yen ($4) a month, you can watch any episodes of one program that you have selected.

The company will introduce an Android version this coming spring.

via Venture Now

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Line’s latest mobile game is great, but for the wrong reason

Rick Martin 2014.03.05

Japan’s Line continues to impress in the gaming space, with its recent title Cookie Run accumulating 10 million downloads in its first 30 days. But personally, I was more interested to try out the company’s latest game Line Rangers, which features the company’s own repertoire of characters. I’ve only spent a little time with this game so far, but I really like it a lot. Yet at the same time I’m a little conflicted. Line has completely ripped off one of my favorite tower defense games, Battle Cats, made by another Japanese company Ponos, based in Kyoto. So on the one hand, I’m really disappointed in Line for its “me too” approach. The similarities between the games are especially apparent if you compare the interface/controls in the pictures below. But on the other hand, two cool games are better than one cool game! Get Line Rangers as a free download for iOS or Google Play. I’ll hopefully have more to say about it after I’ve spent a week or so playing with it.

Japan’s Line continues to impress in the gaming space, with its recent title Cookie Run accumulating 10 million downloads in its first 30 days. But personally, I was more interested to try out the company’s latest game Line Rangers, which features the company’s own repertoire of characters. I’ve only spent a little time with this game so far, but I really like it a lot.

Yet at the same time I’m a little conflicted. Line has completely ripped off one of my favorite tower defense games, Battle Cats, made by another Japanese company Ponos, based in Kyoto.

So on the one hand, I’m really disappointed in Line for its “me too” approach. The similarities between the games are especially apparent if you compare the interface/controls in the pictures below. But on the other hand, two cool games are better than one cool game!

Get Line Rangers as a free download for iOS or Google Play. I’ll hopefully have more to say about it after I’ve spent a week or so playing with it.

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Japan’s Line announces the launch of three new services

Line

Masaru Ikeda 2014.02.26

Tokyo-based Line, the company behind the messaging app of the same name, held a press event today called “LINE Showcase 2014”, where it unveiled the launch of three new services. Line Creators Market This feature allows users to sell their own stickers on Line’s marketplace. To date Line has been providing stickers made by the company’s own designers. But this allows all users and third-party developers to make money by creating their own stickers. Your stickers will be reviewed before they make it onto the marketplace. You can participate in the marketplace for free, and a set of 40 different stickers can be sold for 100 yen (approximately $1). 50% of those sales will go to sticker designers. The feature will be launched this coming April. Line Business Connect This feature allows corporate users to engage your customers more effectively using the messaging app. By providing an API, it allows you to connect to your customers using your own CRM (customer relationship management) solutions or other in-house tools. For example, users could place an order for pizza by sending a designated sticker to a pizza delivery chain, or hail a cab by sending your geographical location using the app. Line…

Tokyo-based Line, the company behind the messaging app of the same name, held a press event today called “LINE Showcase 2014”, where it unveiled the launch of three new services.

Line Creators Market

This feature allows users to sell their own stickers on Line’s marketplace. To date Line has been providing stickers made by the company’s own designers. But this allows all users and third-party developers to make money by creating their own stickers.

Your stickers will be reviewed before they make it onto the marketplace. You can participate in the marketplace for free, and a set of 40 different stickers can be sold for 100 yen (approximately $1). 50% of those sales will go to sticker designers. The feature will be launched this coming April.

Line Business Connect

This feature allows corporate users to engage your customers more effectively using the messaging app. By providing an API, it allows you to connect to your customers using your own CRM (customer relationship management) solutions or other in-house tools.

For example, users could place an order for pizza by sending a designated sticker to a pizza delivery chain, or hail a cab by sending your geographical location using the app.

Line Call

(This is a literal translation from its Japanese name)

This feature is similar to Skype in that it lets users call landline or mobile phones at affordable rates. All you need to pay is the connection charge which starts at 2 yen (or about 2 US cents) per minute. The service is planned to be launched in March, and will be available for calls to Japan, the US, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, some news sources recently reported that the company would be possibly acquired by Japanese telco Softbank. But the company’s COO Takeshi Idesawa denied that rumor at the conference today.

[Source: CNet Japan]

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Why Japan’s top money-making games don’t forget you on Valentine’s Day

Rick Martin 2014.02.14

It’s a very snowy Valentine’s Day here in Tokyo today, and I expect many of us will be spending the evening indoors with our significant others. If you find yourself alone this evening, however, don’t despair – because your favorite mobile games probably have something special in store for you. It’s not unusual for game and app developers to hold special Valentine’s Day campaigns. In fact it’s pretty common these days. But some of the most successful campaigns are the ones that prompt you to give some love back. And by love, I obviously mean money. Two of Japan’s most successful video game publishers both have interesting Valentine’s campaigns currently ongoing, and I’d like to take a quick look at them right now. Let’s start with GungHo Online Entertainment, whose ‘Hearts-a-flutter’ event in Puzzle & Dragons (promo pictured above) began on February 12 and will go on until February 19th. GungHo will be rewarding players with a number of goodies, including: a free magic stone on February 12th–13th, 18th–19th a free Tamadra every day from February 14th–17th (used to awaken new skills in your collected monsters) [1] What’s smart about this kind of campaign is that it sucks you deeper…

It’s a very snowy Valentine’s Day here in Tokyo today, and I expect many of us will be spending the evening indoors with our significant others. If you find yourself alone this evening, however, don’t despair – because your favorite mobile games probably have something special in store for you.

It’s not unusual for game and app developers to hold special Valentine’s Day campaigns. In fact it’s pretty common these days. But some of the most successful campaigns are the ones that prompt you to give some love back. And by love, I obviously mean money.

Two of Japan’s most successful video game publishers both have interesting Valentine’s campaigns currently ongoing, and I’d like to take a quick look at them right now. Let’s start with GungHo Online Entertainment, whose ‘Hearts-a-flutter’ event in Puzzle & Dragons (promo pictured above) began on February 12 and will go on until February 19th. GungHo will be rewarding players with a number of goodies, including:

a free magic stone on February 12th–13th, 18th–19th
a free Tamadra every day from February 14th–17th (used to awaken new skills in your collected monsters) [1]

What’s smart about this kind of campaign is that it sucks you deeper into the game. You have a chance to level up your existing monsters, and with the free stones you’ll be closer a chance to try the Rare Egg machine (requires five stones), which you normally have to pay for. And maybe it’s no coincidence that GungHo is giving out four magic stones, expecting that users might be willing to pay the extra 100 yen (or $1) for the fifth one, so they can try the Rare Egg machine [2].

GungHo regularly holds holiday campaigns like these for Puzzle & Dragons, most recently with a New Year’s campaign that yielded great results in North America in particular.

Another Japanese company, Line Corporation, is holding a Valentine’s Day promotion in many of its casual games. The company’s ‘Love is Priceless’ event is featured in three games — Line Pop, Line Pokopang, and Line Bubble — running from February 13th until February 15.

For a span of 62 hours, players will have access to free in-game items which usually require payment to use. So much like GungHo’s tactic, Line is hoping to bring you into the item-purchase process, giving you a taste of fun gameplay that they hope you will pay for later on after the event concludes. Both Line and GungHo have been active promoting these and other holiday events on their respective Facebook pages, realizing that its a necessary part of connecting with with global fans.

Like holiday sales in retail stores, such promotions are always a popular way to connect with customers, and they certainly appear to be working for both GungHo and Line. The two companies were among the top app publishers in sales in 2013, with GungHo ranking number one, and Line not too far behind at number six.

As in app purchases become more and more important to app revenue, game publishers in particular should take note of these holiday tactics and capitalize on such opportunities whenever they can.

So what’s your favorite Valentine’s Day game promotion this year? Do feel free to let us know!

Note that I’m playing the North American version of the game, and the promotion may differ in other regions. ↩
There are other ways to get magic stones in the game, but they do require some time. ↩

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Facebook unlikely to dethrone Line in Japan anytime soon

Rick Martin 2014.02.10

With over 340 million registered users around the world, Line’s success as a mobile platform is difficult to ignore. Over 9.2 billion messages are sent daily, and thanks to games and stickers Line brought in 12.2 billion yen in the last quarter [1]. Line’s home market of Japan is an interesting one to examine, given that 50 million of its registered users are based there [2]. As far back as a year ago, we declared here that ‘Line is the Japanese Facebook’, a comparison referring primarily to its dominance rather than any similarity in features. But how does the social internet landscape look in Japan in 2014? Let’s take a look at a couple of recent surveys that shed some light on this. Japanese market research site Fast-Ask recently polled a group of 680 people (ranging from teenages to those in their 40s) and asked them a barrage of questions. The most interesting question perhaps was (roughly translated) “Out of Facebook, Twitter, and Line, which would present the most trouble if it were suddenly taken away from you?” Almost half of respondents (49.0%) chose Line as their most essential service, with the rest of the respondents split between Twitter, Facebook,…

With over 340 million registered users around the world, Line’s success as a mobile platform is difficult to ignore. Over 9.2 billion messages are sent daily, and thanks to games and stickers Line brought in 12.2 billion yen in the last quarter [1].

Line’s home market of Japan is an interesting one to examine, given that 50 million of its registered users are based there [2]. As far back as a year ago, we declared here that ‘Line is the Japanese Facebook’, a comparison referring primarily to its dominance rather than any similarity in features. But how does the social internet landscape look in Japan in 2014? Let’s take a look at a couple of recent surveys that shed some light on this.

Japanese market research site Fast-Ask recently polled a group of 680 people (ranging from teenages to those in their 40s) and asked them a barrage of questions. The most interesting question perhaps was (roughly translated) “Out of Facebook, Twitter, and Line, which would present the most trouble if it were suddenly taken away from you?” Almost half of respondents (49.0%) chose Line as their most essential service, with the rest of the respondents split between Twitter, Facebook, and “I don’t know.”

Similarly, when asked “Which service on average do you use most?”, 40.4% of respondents said it was Line, with Twitter and Facebook polling at 32.6% and 23.5% respectively.

One of the reasons that Line has done so well is that it has managed to attract female users as well as male. The cute characters have helped its popularity in Thailand and Taiwan especially, where the service has 22 million and 17 million registered users respectively. A number of other ‘kawaii’ Japanese apps , including CocoPPa and Snapeee have won some attention in those regions as well, where made-in-Japan cuteness appears to be popular.

Here in Japan, Line is especially popular with the ladies, as another recent survey of over 2000 young mothers showed (average age 31.4 years old). In this poll, participants were asked which internet service they use at least once a week. Overwhelmingly, 70.4% say they use line at that frequency, up more than 20% on the previous year’s survey (see chart below).

In comparison, both Facebook and Twitter were also more popular than previous years in this survey, but their growth was not nearly as sharp as Line’s over the past year. If Facebook gets its mobile act together, it could make some further progress in Japan. But I think that if anyone is going to dethrone Line in its home market, it would have to be a service born on mobile. And that isn’t Facebook [3].

This according to Line, as of January 23, 2014. ↩
As of January 23, there are 22 million in Thailand, 17 million in each of Taiwan and Indonesia, 16 million in India, and 15 million in Spain. ↩
Facebook had about 21 million users in Japan when we last checked in. ↩

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Let’s Golf: Hit the links in a maid costume in Line’s latest game

Rick Martin 2014.01.15

As I chatted with a friend on Line earlier today, he suggest that I try one of the new games on the chat platform, Let’s Golf, to see if I could beat his score. Most of Line’s games are pretty casual and I rarely come back to many of them. But developed by Gameloft and sporting some decent 3D graphics, I expected this one to be a little better. So I gave it a try. I began the game with four straight hole-in-ones, which almost made me immediately put it aside it was so easy. This is clearly not for golf purists (not that I am one) but rather it’s a little more fast paced. All you have to do is aim for the pin, there’s no putting involved at all. But surprisingly, you are on a timer. There are two oscillating meters on the side for strength and accuracy (hardly novel in golf games) and you need to tap the screen when they’re in the sweet spot [1]. What makes the game fun is the timer, challenging you to score as many points as you can by coming close to the hole or hitting lots of aces. You also…

As I chatted with a friend on Line earlier today, he suggest that I try one of the new games on the chat platform, Let’s Golf, to see if I could beat his score. Most of Line’s games are pretty casual and I rarely come back to many of them. But developed by Gameloft and sporting some decent 3D graphics, I expected this one to be a little better. So I gave it a try.

I began the game with four straight hole-in-ones, which almost made me immediately put it aside it was so easy. This is clearly not for golf purists (not that I am one) but rather it’s a little more fast paced. All you have to do is aim for the pin, there’s no putting involved at all. But surprisingly, you are on a timer.

There are two oscillating meters on the side for strength and accuracy (hardly novel in golf games) and you need to tap the screen when they’re in the sweet spot [1]. What makes the game fun is the timer, challenging you to score as many points as you can by coming close to the hole or hitting lots of aces. You also have a chance in fever mode at the end of rounds to pocket some extra points.

And then there are the outfits. In addition to being able to upgrade your clubs, you can also upgrade/change your golf attire. The available costumes are pretty outrageous, with choices including a diving suit, Santa costume, a French maid outfit, a kimono, samurai armor, and a bikini. That’s just a few of them, and you can unlock more are you play through the game.

This is one if the more fun Line titles that I’ve played so far, and its good to see the company working with quality developers to offer a strong range of casual games. China’s favorite me-too messenger WeChat is no doubt still watching closely, having just released a knockoff of Line’s WindRunner this past week with its GunZ Dash. I’ll compare those two in a future article. As both chat platforms try to go global, the games that they offer will be of even greater importance.

Overall Let’s Golf is definitely worth a download, especially if you are a regular user of Line and you want to destroy your friends’ gaming spirits as I did. If you’d like to check it out, you can get it for iOS or Android as a free download.

The simple one-tap controls are nice, and for anyone who commutes on a train, it’s a good way to kill some time. ↩

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Line unveils pre-release version of its flea market platform

Junya Mori 2013.12.20

See the original story in Japanese. Our readers may recall our report from Line’s annual showcase event back in August where the company announced that it was planning to launch a flea market platform. The service went online today, and is available on Android as a trial version. It’s called Line Mall. The new app is fully integrated with the Line messaging app, and Line users can login without any additional sign-up process. But your credentials for the market platform are independent from the messaging platform, and your history of selling and buying items will be never shared with your friends on the messaging platform without your prior approval. On Line Mall, categories of products range from fashion, baby goods, interior items, consumer electronics, toys, hobby items, foods, and beauty products. To sell your own items on the platform, no preliminary review or subscription fee is required. However, to keep users safe from suspicious items, Line’s staffers review your item before listing it on the platform. When receiving a payment, the messaging company stands between the seller and buyer, in order to prevent possible unfair trades. You can also earn rewards points when you buy things from other users on…

See the original story in Japanese.

Our readers may recall our report from Line’s annual showcase event back in August where the company announced that it was planning to launch a flea market platform. The service went online today, and is available on Android as a trial version. It’s called Line Mall.

The new app is fully integrated with the Line messaging app, and Line users can login without any additional sign-up process. But your credentials for the market platform are independent from the messaging platform, and your history of selling and buying items will be never shared with your friends on the messaging platform without your prior approval.

On Line Mall, categories of products range from fashion, baby goods, interior items, consumer electronics, toys, hobby items, foods, and beauty products. To sell your own items on the platform, no preliminary review or subscription fee is required. However, to keep users safe from suspicious items, Line’s staffers review your item before listing it on the platform. When receiving a payment, the messaging company stands between the seller and buyer, in order to prevent possible unfair trades. You can also earn rewards points when you buy things from other users on the platform.

The company plans to improve the app based on feedback from users, and will release the official version of the app next Spring. It’s expected that the iOS version will also be available soon.

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A mobile Q&A service finally done right? Meet Line Q

Junya Mori 2013.12.12

See the original article in Japanese Line, Japan’s popular mobile messenger app, has recently launched a new service. It’s called Line Q, and it provides a platform where users can interact each other by asking and answering questions on a range of topics. Users can post questions that they immediately need an answer for, at anytime and from anywhere using their smartphone. Other users can answer by posting text, pictures, videos, location information, and stickers – all in a mobile chat-format screen. There are some choices for those who post questions: they can choose a category related to their question, they can make their question open to all users, or they can restrict questions only to their friends, with both public and private options. Another unique function is the I want to know too! button, enabling users to share others’ questions on their timelines. Using their Line network, the posted questions can be shown to friends or experts with particular knowledge or skill. Private questions, however, cannot be shared using the “I want to know too!” button. Users can get points by answering the questions or being chosen as giving the “best answer”. When user points reach a certain level,…

See the original article in Japanese

Line, Japan’s popular mobile messenger app, has recently launched a new service. It’s called Line Q, and it provides a platform where users can interact each other by asking and answering questions on a range of topics. Users can post questions that they immediately need an answer for, at anytime and from anywhere using their smartphone. Other users can answer by posting text, pictures, videos, location information, and stickers – all in a mobile chat-format screen.

There are some choices for those who post questions: they can choose a category related to their question, they can make their question open to all users, or they can restrict questions only to their friends, with both public and private options.

Another unique function is the I want to know too! button, enabling users to share others’ questions on their timelines. Using their Line network, the posted questions can be shown to friends or experts with particular knowledge or skill. Private questions, however, cannot be shared using the “I want to know too!” button.

Users can get points by answering the questions or being chosen as giving the “best answer”. When user points reach a certain level, they can then convert them to cash. Users can even win bonus points depending on the number of times they’ve give the best answer. There is a monthly ranking system for users in each category, and in order to motivate users to answer questions, several schemes are being implemented. For example, top-rated users can be reward with double points for the following month.

In the past, many companies have attempted to build a Q&A service for mobile. But most of them had difficulty acquiring users and encouraging engagement. Line expects to solve the both problems with Line Q.

In the future, we might also see corporate accounts participating in Line Q. If companies can conduct surveys or find enhanced user participation, it could even replace some existing market-research services.

Line Q is currently available both iOS and Google Play. It’s in Japanese only for the time being.

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Japan’s Line meets 2013 goal of 300M users, wants half billion in 2014

Rick Martin 2013.11.25

Japan’s Line Corporation, which previously stated that its goal for this year was to hit 300 million users, has just announced that it has met that target as of today. And perhaps even more ambitiously, the company says it wants to hit 500 million by the end of 2014. Check out the chart of Line’s user growth to date in their chart below. That 500 million total would put it up among the world’s social big boys, but still trailing Facebook which has over a billion users. China’s WeChat is its primary Asia rival, but that service (in my view) may not have the global appeal that Line has. Line’s most recent sales figures (for July to September 2013) were up 48% on the previous quarter, with 60% of its sales coming from games, and 20% coming from its stamps business.

Japan’s Line Corporation, which previously stated that its goal for this year was to hit 300 million users, has just announced that it has met that target as of today. And perhaps even more ambitiously, the company says it wants to hit 500 million by the end of 2014.

Check out the chart of Line’s user growth to date in their chart below.

That 500 million total would put it up among the world’s social big boys, but still trailing Facebook which has over a billion users. China’s WeChat is its primary Asia rival, but that service (in my view) may not have the global appeal that Line has.

Line’s most recent sales figures (for July to September 2013) were up 48% on the previous quarter, with 60% of its sales coming from games, and 20% coming from its stamps business.

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Survey yields surprising insights into smartphone use in Japan

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.11.19

Japanese software development company Just sytems has conducted a survey of 1,100 respondents ages 15 to 69 about about their usage of mobile and social media. The survey used the company’s product Fastask, an online survey and questionnaire platform that works similar to Survey Monkey. The same survey was conducted back in July of 2012, the number of smartphone users exceeded the number of feature phone users by only a little: 48% to 47.7%. Smartphone usage is more common for people in their teens, 20s, and 30s, with a surprising 75% of kids ages 10 to 20 carrying smartphones. People in their 20s owning smartphones about 70%, and 30s at roughly 61%. When asked about which mobile apps that they use most frequently in a given day, the app with the most usage time was Yahoo Japan, at about 24 minutes per day. Both male and females in their teens and 20s used social apps like Line, Facebook, and Twitter about 80 minutes per day. Teen girls use these apps more heavily than other segments, led by Line at 38 minutes, Twitter for 37 minutes, and Facebook for eight minutes per day. Respondents were also asked about the App Store’s…

Japanese software development company Just sytems has conducted a survey of 1,100 respondents ages 15 to 69 about about their usage of mobile and social media. The survey used the company’s product Fastask, an online survey and questionnaire platform that works similar to Survey Monkey.

The same survey was conducted back in July of 2012, the number of smartphone users exceeded the number of feature phone users by only a little: 48% to 47.7%. Smartphone usage is more common for people in their teens, 20s, and 30s, with a surprising 75% of kids ages 10 to 20 carrying smartphones. People in their 20s owning smartphones about 70%, and 30s at roughly 61%.

When asked about which mobile apps that they use most frequently in a given day, the app with the most usage time was Yahoo Japan, at about 24 minutes per day. Both male and females in their teens and 20s used social apps like Line, Facebook, and Twitter about 80 minutes per day. Teen girls use these apps more heavily than other segments, led by Line at 38 minutes, Twitter for 37 minutes, and Facebook for eight minutes per day.

docomo-smartphone — Docomo smartphone launch, 2012

Respondents were also asked about the App Store’s price hike in October. Almost 60% of iPhone users were aware of it, and 54% noted that they are considering cutting back on the purchase of paid apps. On a related topic, the survey also found that almost 53% of iPhone users use some sort of paid app for managing their schedule, in contrast to 41% of Android users.

The fact that this survey was conducted solely online may mean that the results skewed more towards tech-savvy smarphone users. But even so, the survey gives us a decent rough idea of the state of smartphone usage in this country. The entire report can be found over on the Fastask website.

Line

Japan’s Line Corporation to launch mobile movie app for kids

Line’s latest mobile game is great, but for the wrong reason

Japan’s Line announces the launch of three new services

Line Creators Market

Line Business Connect

Line Call

Why Japan’s top money-making games don’t forget you on Valentine’s Day

Facebook unlikely to dethrone Line in Japan anytime soon

Let’s Golf: Hit the links in a maid costume in Line’s latest game

Line unveils pre-release version of its flea market platform

A mobile Q&A service finally done right? Meet Line Q

Japan’s Line meets 2013 goal of 300M users, wants half billion in 2014

Survey yields surprising insights into smartphone use in Japan

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