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DeNA may have cut back operations on its Comm messaging app [Report]

Takeshi Hirano 2013.06.26

See the original story in Japanese. Nikkei Business reported today that DeNA has cut back operations for its Comm messaging app, and is planning to cease further user acquisition efforts. The report says: The Comm app was introduced by DeNA to compete against Line. We recently learned the company has cut back operations for this messaging app. At its peak, the team for the app had almost 70 engineers, but this seems to have decreased to just several team members earlier this month. The company intends to cease promotional activities for acquiring new users. We also heard from a source that they might have cut back operations earlier this month. Some of our readers may have read Serkan Toto’s report that Comm integrated casino games into the messaging app. But it looks to have made no impact in terms of user acquisition. We have reached out to DeNA this morning for comment on the report, but have not yet received a reply. Update: The company says that the size of the Comm team is always changing, and will continue to do so. A representative notes that they “naturally needed to operate in a big group at launch” but has been…

See the original story in Japanese.

Nikkei Business reported today that DeNA has cut back operations for its Comm messaging app, and is planning to cease further user acquisition efforts. The report says:

The Comm app was introduced by DeNA to compete against Line. We recently learned the company has cut back operations for this messaging app. At its peak, the team for the app had almost 70 engineers, but this seems to have decreased to just several team members earlier this month. The company intends to cease promotional activities for acquiring new users.

We also heard from a source that they might have cut back operations earlier this month. Some of our readers may have read Serkan Toto’s report that Comm integrated casino games into the messaging app. But it looks to have made no impact in terms of user acquisition. We have reached out to DeNA this morning for comment on the report, ~~but have not yet received a reply.~~ Update: The company says that the size of the Comm team is always changing, and will continue to do so. A representative notes that they “naturally needed to operate in a big group at launch” but has been “flexibly changing the team structure.” (RM)

Nikkei Business points to Kakao Talk and CyberAgent’s Decolink as competitors to Line in Japan. GREE has also launched a messaging app back in December of 2012, but it is still not promoted much and is only available in Australia and some other countries. It was rebranded as Tellit back in March.

When we look at messaging apps in the Asian region, WeChat (from Tencent) has been showing good numbers. They have acquired more than 50 million users outside China, in addition to its existing 300 million users in its home market of China.

In contrast with the success of Line and WeChat, some players in the Asia region may be in for tough times ahead.

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Japan’s Chatwork brings its business chat tool to Europe

Junya Mori 2013.06.21

See the original story in Japanese. Chatwork Inc., a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business, has announced that it would start expanding service operations to the European region from Luxembourg. This follows its international expansion to North America last year, and the Asian region this past spring. The Chatwork app was launched back in March of 2011, providing a business chat environment for corporate users, with features like group chat, task management, file management, and video conferencing. Luxembourg is known for having a very low tax rate, and has succeeded in inviting a number of multinational companies to set up shop there. It’s surrounded by Germany, France, and Belgium, and most local citizens can speak English, Luxembourgish, German, and French. Chatwork has decided to start its European operations here because of these geographical and linguistic advantages. The company was in attendance at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech startup conference in the country taking place this week. The startup recently unveiled that it has acquired more than 200,000 users as of this month. In terms of the ratio of paid to unpaid users, Chatwork has performed even better than services like Dropbox or Evernote, which are…

See the original story in Japanese.

Chatwork Inc., a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business, has announced that it would start expanding service operations to the European region from Luxembourg. This follows its international expansion to North America last year, and the Asian region this past spring.

The Chatwork app was launched back in March of 2011, providing a business chat environment for corporate users, with features like group chat, task management, file management, and video conferencing.

Luxembourg is known for having a very low tax rate, and has succeeded in inviting a number of multinational companies to set up shop there. It’s surrounded by Germany, France, and Belgium, and most local citizens can speak English, Luxembourgish, German, and French. Chatwork has decided to start its European operations here because of these geographical and linguistic advantages. The company was in attendance at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech startup conference in the country taking place this week.

The startup recently unveiled that it has acquired more than 200,000 users as of this month. In terms of the ratio of paid to unpaid users, Chatwork has performed even better than services like Dropbox or Evernote, which are said to be around 4 to 4.5%. More than 50,000 users visit the service every day, and more than 100 million messages have been exchanged using the platform.

The startup unveiled a screen-sharing feature called ChatWork back in May. And from here, it will be interesting to see how much traction it can build in the country where Skype started its journey.

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Docomo partners with Line, finds a creative way to relieve network strain

Rick Martin 2013.05.15

Back in January of 2012, Japanese carrier NTT Docomo (TYO:9437) attributed a network disruption to free VoIP applications, with popular chat app Line being the first one that it cited. Line, which launched back in mid-2011, was just picking up steam at the time with about 15 million downloads reported at that point, and 5.5 million of those in Japan. Since then of course, the application’s download count is about ten times as high – in Japan, where it has more than 45 million; and abroad, where there are over than 150 million. And while Docomo has itself had time to solidify its network infrastructure to accommodate the kind of data load that apps like Line demand, it can’t be an easy task. So it was interesting to see today that Docomo has decided to partner with Line Corporation, as announced in an event earlier today. There are a few aspects to the companies’ partnership, but the most interesting collaboration will be an original Line application for Android that will include a call button in app that users can use to make voice calls. The goal here, as Docomo itself notes, is to reduce the load on their network. This…

Docomo Line — Docomo CEO Kaoru Kato, photo by Keizai.biz

Back in January of 2012, Japanese carrier NTT Docomo (TYO:9437) attributed a network disruption to free VoIP applications, with popular chat app Line being the first one that it cited. Line, which launched back in mid-2011, was just picking up steam at the time with about 15 million downloads reported at that point, and 5.5 million of those in Japan.

Since then of course, the application’s download count is about ten times as high – in Japan, where it has more than 45 million; and abroad, where there are over than 150 million. And while Docomo has itself had time to solidify its network infrastructure to accommodate the kind of data load that apps like Line demand, it can’t be an easy task. So it was interesting to see today that Docomo has decided to partner with Line Corporation, as announced in an event earlier today.

There are a few aspects to the companies’ partnership, but the most interesting collaboration will be an original Line application for Android that will include a call button in app that users can use to make voice calls. The goal here, as Docomo itself notes, is to reduce the load on their network. This will be put in place in September, and will allow users to call other Docomo users for free. Ostensibly, the regular Line voice call button (for VoIP calls) will still be in place.

This is a pretty fascinating maneuver on Docomo’s part, as telcos the world over adjust to a mobile industry shifting from voice to data [1].

The other aspect of the Docomo-Line agreement will bring another original Line application to Docomo’s Raku-Raku smartphones, which target users who aren’t accustomed to smartphones, especially the country’s large senior population. This app will implement preventative measures to limit transactions amounts that may have resulted from accidental purchases.

A million reading manga on mobile ¶

In addition to striking this partnership with Japan’s largest carrier, this marks a pretty good day for Line. The company also announced that its new manga application has reached a million downloads, this just a little over a month after the service initially launched in Japan.

As for Docomo, the telco isn’t doing too shabby either with more than 12 million LTE subscribers as of April 20th. Oh, and the company announced some new phones today too. But of course, still no iPhone.

(Download chart as image)

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.

As one example, check out this ZDnet piece from yesterday saying that such messaging apps would cost Indian telcos more than a billion dollars this year. Of course that’s a far different mobile landscape than Japan, but it will be interesting to see if any other telecoms try what Docomo is doing. (Perhaps some already have? Let us know in the comments if you know of any) ↩

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How a small Japanese startup is helping Thailand’s biggest telco win new 3G subscribers

Masaru Ikeda 2013.05.14

Thailand’s largest mobile operator, AIS, recently launched a new 3G service offering peak download speeds of up to 42Mbps in the country’s urban areas. To promote the service, the telco has been looking for new content to grab consumers’ attention. Quan, the Tokyo-based startup behind the Lounge messaging app, recently partnered with AIS, launching a new sticker app to help bring in new 3G service subscribers. I was curious to know if maybe this sticker app was a deviation from its regular business. A new direction perhaps? Is there any specific strategy behind it? In order to find out more to, we spoke with the startup’s CEO Kazuhiro Mizuno. When we last talked back in January of 2012, you were not focusing on Thailand nor were you doing any of this sticker app stuff. What happened since then? We first started marketing the app all around the Asia region, and we found it was especially popular with users in Thailand. The sticker function used to be part of the Lounge app, but we spun it off and launched it as an independent app. It’s called myStickerShop, and it has seen 500,000 downloads since first launching on Google Play. I fly…

Thailand’s largest mobile operator, AIS, recently launched a new 3G service offering peak download speeds of up to 42Mbps in the country’s urban areas. To promote the service, the telco has been looking for new content to grab consumers’ attention.

Quan, the Tokyo-based startup behind the Lounge messaging app, recently partnered with AIS, launching a new sticker app to help bring in new 3G service subscribers. I was curious to know if maybe this sticker app was a deviation from its regular business. A new direction perhaps? Is there any specific strategy behind it? In order to find out more to, we spoke with the startup’s CEO Kazuhiro Mizuno.

When we last talked back in January of 2012, you were not focusing on Thailand nor were you doing any of this sticker app stuff. What happened since then?

We first started marketing the app all around the Asia region, and we found it was especially popular with users in Thailand. The sticker function used to be part of the Lounge app, but we spun it off and launched it as an independent app. It’s called myStickerShop, and it has seen 500,000 downloads since first launching on Google Play.

I fly a lot to Thailand now, about once a month. And we’ve been discussing and exploring collaborative work [with AIS]. They knew myStickerShop has been a great success, and were interested in releasing it under the AIS brand as to attract potential subscribers to their new 3G service. So we decided to work on it with them using a revenue-share model [1].

There are many mobile carriers and MVNOs in Thailand. Why did you choose AIS? And why Thailand?

AIS is not only on top of the country’s mobile industry […] but it is also a Thai subsidiary of Singtel group. That group has many companies and subsidiaries all over Asia, which means it may help us market and expand our business in the future.

By providing our app to AIS on a white-label basis, they handle it as their own app and market it to users using their promotion channels – so we don’t need to [do so much afterwards].

As for why we’ve chosen Thailand, the country is less competitive and it’s easier to make business profitable than in places like Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Furthermore, content goes viral among Thai consumers very rapidly. In terms of consumer mentality, it’s very similar to Japan, meaning when you see your friend with some attractive or interesting items, you also want to have them. This consumer mindset can yield better viral marketing results, and that’s especially good for app developers like us.

Are you interested in expanding to other Asian countries?

Not right now. From my perspective, if you have a Japanese-style fashion app and want to market it somewhere in Asia, you can easily jump into the Taiwanese market. For Japan-made ‘Kawaii’ (cute) apps, maybe the Thai market is best right now. The market seems receptive to common Japanese trends, and local people are very friendly even for Japanese startups.

Many sticker and messaging apps are competing in this space in Asia. How do you differentiate from competitors?

Other cute Japanese apps such as Snapeee or Decopic are trending in places like Taiwan or Hong Kong. What they have been doing is bringing Japanese style to local markets, where they have not made any localization efforts in terms of exporting the apps outside Japan.

I believe what’s most important is a combination of Japan-made designs and local designs. In our case with the AIS MyStickerShop, we actually provide them with our original stickers by our Japanese designers, but they also add some local Thai designs. That might work to create favorable good results.

Most popular sticker and message apps are Japan-made. Are any developers from other Asian countries on top of this space?

This is because of highly sophisticated designing in Japan’s mature design market. Our country is well known for creating manga or anime, creating a market where cartoonists or illustrators can make a living. Perhaps many people designing our stickers are also very well trained.

In addition to the Lounge messaging app and myStickerShop, are you working on any other projects now?

We’ve been bringing our app to the Thai market, and we also started helping Thai startups market their apps in the Japanese market in return. We recently partnered with Kiragames, a gaming startup in Thailand’s second largest city, Chiang Mai. We developed the Japanese version of their smash hit puzzle game Unblock.me. We’re also helping them market it in Japan, by getting itlisted on KDDI’s Smartpass or NTT Docomo’s Sugotoku — both are monthly subscription-based app purchasing programs. This is a good way to give Japanese consumers easier access to apps from foreign developers.

I was pretty impressed that Mr. Mizuno has been so active helping other Japanese or Thai startups work collaboratively in such a way. Quan received an undisclosed amount of investment from NetPrice.com and East Ventures in August of 2012.

Note that the customized AIS version of myStickerShop is only available using AIS handsets on the telco’s high-speed 3G service in Thailand. ↩

news

Manga Camera adds chat feature, giving your conversations a comic flavor

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.05.11

Manga Camera is a popular camera app that cleverly turns your photos into manga style pictures. The app had an impressive 2 million downloads within a month of its release, and has so far nabbed 5.8 million downloads in total, with 4.5 star rating on the app store. Manga Camera has just updated its app to add a chat feature. You can send friends message that consists of a photo and a dialogue in a fun manga style. Chatting back and forth with others in this way automatically creates a sort of live manga story. This ‘Manga Talk’ feature is currently available on iOS but will soon be released on Android as well. The app even has a sort of artificial intelligence built into it. By sending messages to Manga Camera’s official account, the app interprets the content of the text and gives appropriate replies, again in a manga style. Another interesting – and perhaps very Japanese – feature is the ‘talking to yourself’ Bocchi function (bocchi means ‘alone’ in Japanese). The picture you create with this process can then be shared on Facebook or Twitter For those of you unfamiliar with the basics of the popular photo app, the…

Manga Camera is a popular camera app that cleverly turns your photos into manga style pictures. The app had an impressive 2 million downloads within a month of its release, and has so far nabbed 5.8 million downloads in total, with 4.5 star rating on the app store.

Manga Camera has just updated its app to add a chat feature. You can send friends message that consists of a photo and a dialogue in a fun manga style. Chatting back and forth with others in this way automatically creates a sort of live manga story. This ‘Manga Talk’ feature is currently available on iOS but will soon be released on Android as well.

The app even has a sort of artificial intelligence built into it. By sending messages to Manga Camera’s official account, the app interprets the content of the text and gives appropriate replies, again in a manga style. Another interesting – and perhaps very Japanese – feature is the ‘talking to yourself’ Bocchi function (bocchi means ‘alone’ in Japanese). The picture you create with this process can then be shared on Facebook or Twitter

For those of you unfamiliar with the basics of the popular photo app, the operaton is fairly simple. Users can select their preferred effects frame from over 32 choices. After you have chosen your frame, just take a photo or choose one from the photo gallery. The photo is instantly turned into a unique manga, and the quality is pretty impressive. The resulting photo can be saved to your camera roll or can be shared on Twitter and Facebook.

Manga Camera has recently been used by Coca-Cola Japan to promote their new flavored tea. The beverage giant has even provided special background frames for this new tea, encouraging people post their photos.

news

StickerMe: Add your own face to mobile chat stickers, share on Facebook, Line, or Kakaotalk

SCORE 2,286

Rick Martin 2013.05.03

Adding to our growing list of fun Japanese photo apps, here’s one for all your guys who have joined the mobile chat app craze. It’s called StickerMe, and it comes from the folks at Motion Portrait, an app publisher well known for its face-altering technology. One of the biggest attractions of mobile chat applications like Line or Kakaotalk is that you can use fun stickers to express yourself. And now with StickerMe, you can take a picture of yourself or any of your friends, and make it into a cute sticker that you can send with your favorite mobile chat application. After taking your initial photo, you can then choose from a pretty wide array of stamps, many of them closely resembling those you’d find on Line (see pictures below). But given the growing popularity of these chat apps in Asia and around the world, this certainly looks like it could be a popular photo utility. Check it out over the Apple App Store, or see how it works in the video above.

Adding to our growing list of fun Japanese photo apps, here’s one for all your guys who have joined the mobile chat app craze. It’s called StickerMe, and it comes from the folks at Motion Portrait, an app publisher well known for its face-altering technology.

One of the biggest attractions of mobile chat applications like Line or Kakaotalk is that you can use fun stickers to express yourself. And now with StickerMe, you can take a picture of yourself or any of your friends, and make it into a cute sticker that you can send with your favorite mobile chat application.

After taking your initial photo, you can then choose from a pretty wide array of stamps, many of them closely resembling those you’d find on Line (see pictures below). But given the growing popularity of these chat apps in Asia and around the world, this certainly looks like it could be a popular photo utility.

Check it out over the Apple App Store, or see how it works in the video above.

news

Line’s hockey stick moment: Japanese chat app hits 150 million users worldwide

Rick Martin 2013.05.01

(Read this article in Japanese) We knew this milestone wasn’t far off after Line Corporation CEO Akira Morikawa noted at the recent Japan New Economy Summit that the Line chat app had 140 million users worldwide. But apparently it became official yesterday that Line has hit the 150 million users milestone. As you can see in the company’s fun commemorative line graph above [1], Line only hit the 100 million user mark this past January, so they seem to be having their hockey-stick moment right now. With more than 45 million users in its home market of Japan, Line will likely be limited to a growth rate that is only as fast as domestic smartphone growth. So Line will have to keep up its overseas expansion, which to date has been pretty good. We recently had a chance to hear Line Corporation CEO Akira Morikawa speak about their relatively flexible global strategy, and how he hopes they can operate as a sort of borderless company. Line has even seen some success in China where it briefly became the top social app in the Apple App Store. Currently it’s still in the top 20 for that category. Will Line see the…

(Read this article in Japanese)

We knew this milestone wasn’t far off after Line Corporation CEO Akira Morikawa noted at the recent Japan New Economy Summit that the Line chat app had 140 million users worldwide. But apparently it became official yesterday that Line has hit the 150 million users milestone.

As you can see in the company’s fun commemorative line graph above [1], Line only hit the 100 million user mark this past January, so they seem to be having their hockey-stick moment right now.

Line Corporations CEO Akira Morikawa echoed these sentiments again at B Dash Camp in Fukuoka — Line Corporations CEO Akira Morikawa

With more than 45 million users in its home market of Japan, Line will likely be limited to a growth rate that is only as fast as domestic smartphone growth. So Line will have to keep up its overseas expansion, which to date has been pretty good. We recently had a chance to hear Line Corporation CEO Akira Morikawa speak about their relatively flexible global strategy, and how he hopes they can operate as a sort of borderless company.

Line has even seen some success in China where it briefly became the top social app in the Apple App Store. Currently it’s still in the top 20 for that category.

Will Line see the same success in the US market? What about Kakaotalk? Line’s Korean counterpart has 86 million downloads globally, and 10 million in Japan – not too shabby either.

There’s also China’s WeChat of course, which has more users than both Line and Kakaotalk combined (about 300 million). But I think overseas growth potential for that app is likely held back by concerns about the made-in-China app which make it a harder sell globally.

(Via AppBank)

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.

I wonder if other types of graphs are permitted in the company… “A bar graph, you say? You’re fired!” ↩

news

Line Corporation’s CEO Morikawa on fast and furious global expansion

Rick Martin 2013.04.22

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013. In the opening session of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013, we had a chance to hear from the CEO of Line Corporation, Akira Morikawa. The company’s popular Line chat app now boasts over 140 million users around the world, and over 45 million in its home market of Japan. The moderator, Ryuichi Nishida, tried to ask if they have a next target goal in terms of users, but Morikawa-san declined to bite on that one. Morikawa explained a little about the recent rebranding of the company from NHN Japan to Line Corporation, explaining that this decision was largely based on creating a brand intended for global expansion. Mr. Nishida asked about what the company’s localizing strategy is, and whether they plan to establish regional subsidiaries in all the countries or regions where they operate. Interestingly, Morikawa-san explained that they do not, noting that they prefer to operate in a more flexible manner, as a sort of borderless company. He says that when they find some success in a certain region, they do fly there and do business – but they don’t need to be there perpetually. He…

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013.

In the opening session of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013, we had a chance to hear from the CEO of Line Corporation, Akira Morikawa. The company’s popular Line chat app now boasts over 140 million users around the world, and over 45 million in its home market of Japan. The moderator, Ryuichi Nishida, tried to ask if they have a next target goal in terms of users, but Morikawa-san declined to bite on that one.

Morikawa explained a little about the recent rebranding of the company from NHN Japan to Line Corporation, explaining that this decision was largely based on creating a brand intended for global expansion.

Mr. Nishida asked about what the company’s localizing strategy is, and whether they plan to establish regional subsidiaries in all the countries or regions where they operate. Interestingly, Morikawa-san explained that they do not, noting that they prefer to operate in a more flexible manner, as a sort of borderless company. He says that when they find some success in a certain region, they do fly there and do business – but they don’t need to be there perpetually. He added:

Maybe we were lucky to succeed in each market, but we didn’t think very deeply about [each one]. Japanese companies think too much. They devise a way to do the best [thing] from the start, and then you can’t really go anywhere.

This somewhat echoes his sentiments from last week at the Japan New Economic Summit, with more of an emphasis on speed and agility. This is pretty unique for a company in Japan, and it’s likely the characteristic that contributed to their unique success thus far.

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.

news

Watch out WeChat! Japan’s Line becomes the top social app in China

Rick Martin 2013.04.10

Japanese chat application Line pulled off a pretty impressive feat this week, achieving the top spot in Apple’s Chinese App Store in the social networking category on April 8. This is especially interesting because so far in Asia, each of the big chat app players Line (Japan), Kakaotalk (Korea), and Weixin/WeChat (China) have each dominated on their home turf. For Line to become the top social networking app in China, having only launched back on December 12, is a significant achievement. According to a China Daily report, it was helped along initially by being introduced via Qihoo 360’s Mobile Assistant. After becoming the top social app on Monday, it has since dropped to number two. But the app is still rising in the overall ‘free app’ rankings (currently ranked 7th), and I wouldn’t be surprised if it reaches number one overall in the next few days. Line is branded as ‘Lian wo ’ or ‘Link Me’ in China, with apps available on iOS, Android, and PC. Given the fact that some individuals in China can be hostile towards Japanese brands, it’s encouraging to see a made-in-Japan service getting some love in the country. Weixin is, of course, still China’s dominant…

Japanese chat application Line pulled off a pretty impressive feat this week, achieving the top spot in Apple’s Chinese App Store in the social networking category on April 8.

This is especially interesting because so far in Asia, each of the big chat app players Line (Japan), Kakaotalk (Korea), and Weixin/WeChat (China) have each dominated on their home turf. For Line to become the top social networking app in China, having only launched back on December 12, is a significant achievement.

According to a China Daily report, it was helped along initially by being introduced via Qihoo 360’s Mobile Assistant. After becoming the top social app on Monday, it has since dropped to number two. But the app is still rising in the overall ‘free app’ rankings (currently ranked 7th), and I wouldn’t be surprised if it reaches number one overall in the next few days.

china-daily-line-social-networking — Photo: China Daily

Line is branded as ‘Lian wo ’ or ‘Link Me’ in China, with apps available on iOS, Android, and PC. Given the fact that some individuals in China can be hostile towards Japanese brands, it’s encouraging to see a made-in-Japan service getting some love in the country. Weixin is, of course, still China’s dominant chat app in terms of overall downloads.

On a related note, Korea’s Kakaotalk has recently made a little progress in Japan, announcing last week that it has surpassed the 10 million downloads milestone, although it’s still a distant second to Line’s 45 million.

Weixin, while dominant in China, has a tougher challenge on its hands in achieving success among non-Chinese users.

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.

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KakaoTalk passes 10 million downloads in Japan

Rick Martin 2013.04.02

While NHN Japan’s Line is winning the chat application war in Japan by a large margin with over 45 million users [1], KakaoTalk is the likely number two in the nation. Today Kakao Japan announced that the KakaoTalk chat app has surpassed the 10 million downloads mark back on March 24. To mark the occasion, the company will have a week-long campaign where fans can win prizes like a Macbook Air and a Pentax Q10 zoom lens kit. What both KakaoTalk and Line have in common in Japan is that both have chosen to advertise heavily on TV in the country. DeNA’s Comm is perhaps the other notable contender with 5 million users as of this past December. I wouldn’t be surprised if Comm also has about 8 or 9 million users currently, given the frequency of its TV commercials. Back in October of 2012, Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689) – the country’s largest web portal – picked up a 50% stake in Kakao Japan. That backing makes KakaoTalk an interesting challenger for Line, even if the competition between the two is not so close right now. Like Line, Kakao Japan heavily features games on its chat platform, with casual titles like…

While NHN Japan’s Line is winning the chat application war in Japan by a large margin with over 45 million users [1], KakaoTalk is the likely number two in the nation. Today Kakao Japan announced that the KakaoTalk chat app has surpassed the 10 million downloads mark back on March 24. To mark the occasion, the company will have a week-long campaign where fans can win prizes like a Macbook Air and a Pentax Q10 zoom lens kit.

What both KakaoTalk and Line have in common in Japan is that both have chosen to advertise heavily on TV in the country. DeNA’s Comm is perhaps the other notable contender with 5 million users as of this past December. I wouldn’t be surprised if Comm also has about 8 or 9 million users currently, given the frequency of its TV commercials.

Back in October of 2012, Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689) – the country’s largest web portal – picked up a 50% stake in Kakao Japan. That backing makes KakaoTalk an interesting challenger for Line, even if the competition between the two is not so close right now.

Like Line, Kakao Japan heavily features games on its chat platform, with casual titles like ZooZoo Bubble, SushiPanic, Tap Tap Blitz, and Pocket Colony.

Both KakaoTalk and Line are expected to make a more intense push for the US market this year, so stay tuned.

If you haven’t yet tried out KakaoTalk, you can get it over on the App Store, on Google Play, or on a number of other platforms.

Line passed 45 million users in Japan back on March 10. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see Line Corporation to announce 50 million domestic downloads in the next month or two. ↩

chat apps

DeNA may have cut back operations on its Comm messaging app [Report]

Japan’s Chatwork brings its business chat tool to Europe

Docomo partners with Line, finds a creative way to relieve network strain

A million reading manga on mobile ¶

How a small Japanese startup is helping Thailand’s biggest telco win new 3G subscribers

When we last talked back in January of 2012, you were not focusing on Thailand nor were you doing any of this sticker app stuff. What happened since then?

There are many mobile carriers and MVNOs in Thailand. Why did you choose AIS? And why Thailand?

Are you interested in expanding to other Asian countries?

Many sticker and messaging apps are competing in this space in Asia. How do you differentiate from competitors?

Most popular sticker and message apps are Japan-made. Are any developers from other Asian countries on top of this space?

In addition to the Lounge messaging app and myStickerShop, are you working on any other projects now?

Manga Camera adds chat feature, giving your conversations a comic flavor

Line’s hockey stick moment: Japanese chat app hits 150 million users worldwide

Line Corporation’s CEO Morikawa on fast and furious global expansion

KakaoTalk passes 10 million downloads in Japan

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A million reading manga on mobile ¶

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When we last talked back in January of 2012, you were not focusing on Thailand nor were you doing any of this sticker app stuff. What happened since then?

There are many mobile carriers and MVNOs in Thailand. Why did you choose AIS? And why Thailand?

Are you interested in expanding to other Asian countries?

Many sticker and messaging apps are competing in this space in Asia. How do you differentiate from competitors?

Most popular sticker and message apps are Japan-made. Are any developers from other Asian countries on top of this space?

In addition to the Lounge messaging app and myStickerShop, are you working on any other projects now?

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