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LINE continues to be the perfect app distributor, as its photo app hits 40M downloads

Rick Martin 2013.07.30

Line Corporation has announced today that that its photo decoration and effects app Line Camera has surpassed the 40 million downloads mark. That’s a pretty significant accomplishment, although one wonders how many of those 40 million have stuck with the app given the abundance of alternatives available in Line’s home market of Japan [1]. I was curious to look at the pace of Line Camera’s growth, given that I hadn’t checked in on the app in over a year (see chart below). After its initial launch in April of 2012, the app picked up 5 million downloads in its first month, and went on to snag 20 million just after New Years. With 40 million announced today, it’s likely that Line Camera’s growth will continue to be completely dependent on how fast the Line chat platform – which is how it is distributed – can grow. Still, there are lots of photo apps that didn’t have such an effective distribution platform as Line, most notably services like Papelook (said to have been downloaded by half of Japan’s young girls who own iPhones), or FX Camera, which had 25 million users as of this past March. For more information on the…

Line Corporation has announced today that that its photo decoration and effects app Line Camera has surpassed the 40 million downloads mark. That’s a pretty significant accomplishment, although one wonders how many of those 40 million have stuck with the app given the abundance of alternatives available in Line’s home market of Japan [1].

I was curious to look at the pace of Line Camera’s growth, given that I hadn’t checked in on the app in over a year (see chart below). After its initial launch in April of 2012, the app picked up 5 million downloads in its first month, and went on to snag 20 million just after New Years. With 40 million announced today, it’s likely that Line Camera’s growth will continue to be completely dependent on how fast the Line chat platform – which is how it is distributed – can grow.

Still, there are lots of photo apps that didn’t have such an effective distribution platform as Line, most notably services like Papelook (said to have been downloaded by half of Japan’s young girls who own iPhones), or FX Camera, which had 25 million users as of this past March.

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

I was one of the early downloaders, and I’m no longer using it. Although admittedly, it probably would have been weird for me to keep doing so. ↩

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Now with 10 million users, Line Play is a problem for Ameba Pigg

SCORE 1,134

Rick Martin 2013.07.25

Having already reached the very impressive milestone of 200 million registered users earlier this week [1], Line Corporation has announced today that its Line Play virtual world application has over 10 million users around the globe, reaching that goal in just 8 months. Line Play is very much following in the footsteps of CyberAgent’s virtual world Ameba Pigg, which itself has 15 million users. It features the same kind of cute avatars which can be customized according to your preference, and a similarly styled virtual environment where you can decorate your own room and visit the rooms of others. There are even games that you can play right within the app. One would think that Line Play has a clear upper hand having been born on mobile – in contrast to Ameba Pigg which is scrambling to adjust to mobile. Of course Line’s global mindset as a company, in contrast the the more insular CyberAgent certainly won’t hurt either [2]. From now until August 4, Line will be holding special fan appreciation events within the app to mark the occasion, including bonus gem and ‘gacha’ events. If you have yet to try out Line Play, you can get it for…

Having already reached the very impressive milestone of 200 million registered users earlier this week [1], Line Corporation has announced today that its Line Play virtual world application has over 10 million users around the globe, reaching that goal in just 8 months.

Line Play is very much following in the footsteps of CyberAgent’s virtual world Ameba Pigg, which itself has 15 million users. It features the same kind of cute avatars which can be customized according to your preference, and a similarly styled virtual environment where you can decorate your own room and visit the rooms of others. There are even games that you can play right within the app.

One would think that Line Play has a clear upper hand having been born on mobile – in contrast to Ameba Pigg which is scrambling to adjust to mobile. Of course Line’s global mindset as a company, in contrast the the more insular CyberAgent certainly won’t hurt either [2].

From now until August 4, Line will be holding special fan appreciation events within the app to mark the occasion, including bonus gem and ‘gacha’ events. If you have yet to try out Line Play, you can get it for free on the App Store or on Google Play. Or to get a better idea of the look and feel of this mobile virtual world, check out the promo video below.

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

Some readers were asking us how many of these 200 million were active users. Line tells us they don’t provide worldwide monthly active user numbers, but says that for Japan, monthly active users were about 80.4% as of December 2012. ↩
CyberAgent previously tried to expand Ameba Pigg beyond Japan, pushing its Pico World service abroad. But regrettably that initiative fell flat and was closed up last December. ↩

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Introducing our Interactive LINE Timeline

Rick Martin 2013.07.24

One of the stories that we have been watching closely on this site is the progress of Line, the chat app that is wildly popular here in Japan and rapidly expanding abroad. In the same spirit of our recent Japan Internet Map, here is our second interactive production – our Line Timeline. It brings together the company’s major updates since it’s original launch way back in 2011, all the way to yesterday’s astounding 200 million downloads milestone. We’re still experimenting with these information rich presentations, but as with last time, the goal here is to provide you with as many details and links as possible. But we had fun with a chat bubble design and even added some fun stickers! We don’t ask anything in return, but if you like it and want to share it with friends, it would certainly be good incentive for us to continue this kind of more time-intensive work! As always, your feedback is welcome! Click to view interactive Line Timeline

One of the stories that we have been watching closely on this site is the progress of Line, the chat app that is wildly popular here in Japan and rapidly expanding abroad.

In the same spirit of our recent Japan Internet Map, here is our second interactive production – our Line Timeline. It brings together the company’s major updates since it’s original launch way back in 2011, all the way to yesterday’s astounding 200 million downloads milestone.

We’re still experimenting with these information rich presentations, but as with last time, the goal here is to provide you with as many details and links as possible. But we had fun with a chat bubble design and even added some fun stickers! We don’t ask anything in return, but if you like it and want to share it with friends, it would certainly be good incentive for us to continue this kind of more time-intensive work!

As always, your feedback is welcome!

Click to view interactive Line Timeline

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Unstoppable: Popular mobile chat app Line surpasses 200M users

Rick Martin 2013.07.23

Line Corporation has announced today that its popular mobile chat application has surpassed the 200 million registered user milestone. This comes not too long after it passed 150 million back on April 30th. For the mathematically impaired, that means an additional 50 million users in the 11 weeks since that time – a few weeks quicker than its previous 50 million. The Android version of the chat app also reached the 100 million downloads milestone on July 18th, no doubt driven by increased adoption around the Asia region. Line began its campaign for the Indian market earlier this month, the first of the major Asian chat apps to do so. The company has yet to really make a serious push for the US market, but we expect to see that sometime this year. 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.

line_users — Line’s journey to 200 million

Line Corporation has announced today that its popular mobile chat application has surpassed the 200 million registered user milestone. This comes not too long after it passed 150 million back on April 30th.

For the mathematically impaired, that means an additional 50 million users in the 11 weeks since that time – a few weeks quicker than its previous 50 million.

The Android version of the chat app also reached the 100 million downloads milestone on July 18th, no doubt driven by increased adoption around the Asia region. Line began its campaign for the Indian market earlier this month, the first of the major Asian chat apps to do so.

The company has yet to really make a serious push for the US market, but we expect to see that sometime this year.

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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Line News aims to be Japan’s top mobile news destination

Rick Martin 2013.07.18

Today Line Corporation further expanded its mobile repertoire by announcing a Line News mobile app for its home market of Japan, available on both iOS and Android. The company hopes to leverage its experience from running Livedoor News and Naver Matome, with the goal of being the top mobile news destination in Japan. Line has a news editorial department which will pick topics to present in a number of categories: Entertainment, Trends, Sports, and Current Events. They will then write short 60 to 70 character summaries for each (reportedly Line has approval from those outlets), as well as a pictures and a couple of related articles. If you want more details than that, you can tap on the source link. The service will also note the sorts of articles you read, and service you with more like them in the future. In terms of mobile news alternatives in Japan, I think there are lots of better alternatives out there, such as more personalized services like Gunosy or Cakes [1]. But I think what this does for Line is incrementally them one step closer to being the dominant place where Japanese users live, a smartphone web portal that serves every need….

Today Line Corporation further expanded its mobile repertoire by announcing a Line News mobile app for its home market of Japan, available on both iOS and Android. The company hopes to leverage its experience from running Livedoor News and Naver Matome, with the goal of being the top mobile news destination in Japan.

Line has a news editorial department which will pick topics to present in a number of categories: Entertainment, Trends, Sports, and Current Events. They will then write short 60 to 70 character summaries for each (reportedly Line has approval from those outlets), as well as a pictures and a couple of related articles. If you want more details than that, you can tap on the source link. The service will also note the sorts of articles you read, and service you with more like them in the future.

In terms of mobile news alternatives in Japan, I think there are lots of better alternatives out there, such as more personalized services like Gunosy or Cakes [1]. But I think what this does for Line is incrementally them one step closer to being the dominant place where Japanese users live, a smartphone web portal that serves every need.

Readers may recall that Line previously launched a Manga service back in April, its other notable venture into the content space in Japan.

Line has its ‘Hello, Friends in Tokyo’ event coming up August, and if that event proves to be anything like last year, we can expect more fun additions from the company at that time.

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

I use Gunosy regularly, but I should point out I’ve only looked at Cakes a little bit – but it looks very, very sharp. We’re hoping to have a feature on the latter service coming soon. ↩

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Line’s ‘Fluffy Diver’ game takes cute to the next level

Rick Martin 2013.07.16

We’ve written about many cute games and apps over the past few weeks, but a recently release game from Line Corporation may have just out-cuted them all. Developed by Korea-based Hot Dog Studio, Fluffy Diver is about as kawaii as any game can get, with a lost baby seal (Fluffy) cast as the hero, on a quest to find his mother. Can you think of anything cuter than that? Me neither. Like all of Line’s casual games, the one-tap controls for Fluffy Diver are incredibly simple. The game is a landscape-oriented side-scroller [1], and you need to make Fluffy dive into and jump out of the water to avoid obstacles and collect valuable items. But even with the simple controls, mastering the flow of Fluffy’s swimming can take a while. So far, like most of Line’s games, this title is performing ok in the Asia region, ranking as a top 10 iOS adventure game in Thailand, while ranking 19th in its home market of Japan, and 40th in Taiwan [2]. If you’d like to try out Fluffy Diver, you can get it as a free download for iOS or Android. Line’s repertoire of games have done incredibly well so far,…

We’ve written about many cute games and apps over the past few weeks, but a recently release game from Line Corporation may have just out-cuted them all. Developed by Korea-based Hot Dog Studio, Fluffy Diver is about as kawaii as any game can get, with a lost baby seal (Fluffy) cast as the hero, on a quest to find his mother.

Can you think of anything cuter than that? Me neither.

Like all of Line’s casual games, the one-tap controls for Fluffy Diver are incredibly simple. The game is a landscape-oriented side-scroller [1], and you need to make Fluffy dive into and jump out of the water to avoid obstacles and collect valuable items. But even with the simple controls, mastering the flow of Fluffy’s swimming can take a while.

So far, like most of Line’s games, this title is performing ok in the Asia region, ranking as a top 10 iOS adventure game in Thailand, while ranking 19th in its home market of Japan, and 40th in Taiwan [2].

If you’d like to try out Fluffy Diver, you can get it as a free download for iOS or Android.

Line’s repertoire of games have done incredibly well so far, thanks to the company’s popular chat platform which has more than 190 million users to date.

On a somewhat related note, just last week Line Corporation announced that it would be establishing a new location in Fukuoka which will be dedicated to helping its Asia expansion.

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

Sort of like Line’s Wind Runner. ↩
These numbers are not outstanding compared to some of Line’s other recent releases. But still solid considering its reach in other markets. ↩

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Line Corporation to establish new Fukuoka location to focus on Asia expansion

Rick Martin 2013.07.12

Japan’s Line Corporation has announced that it will be establishing a new location in the country’s western city of Fukuoka by the fall of 2015. This particular location is being built to help focus on the company’s Asia growth, it’s proximity to other Asian cities makes that a little easier. Line’s popular chat app has 190 million users to date, and could possibly hit 200 million later this month. The new building will be centrally located near Hakata Station, and is expected to be able to accommodate over 1000 people. This will also contribute to the local economy through job creation as well, as it looks like they are already hiring. Our readers may recall that we spend some time in Fukuoka a few months back to cover the B Dash Camp tech conference. Interestingly, one of the headline speakers at that event was Line’s CEO Akira Morikawa, who at the time explained that his company does not plan to establish regional subsidiaries in many countries – but rather operate in a more flexible manner as a sort of borderless company. So far the company has been very good at doing business in this way, and it will be interesting…

line-ceo-morikawa-620x430 — Line Corporation CEO Akira Morikawa

Japan’s Line Corporation has announced that it will be establishing a new location in the country’s western city of Fukuoka by the fall of 2015. This particular location is being built to help focus on the company’s Asia growth, it’s proximity to other Asian cities makes that a little easier.

Line’s popular chat app has 190 million users to date, and could possibly hit 200 million later this month.

The new building will be centrally located near Hakata Station, and is expected to be able to accommodate over 1000 people. This will also contribute to the local economy through job creation as well, as it looks like they are already hiring.

Our readers may recall that we spend some time in Fukuoka a few months back to cover the B Dash Camp tech conference. Interestingly, one of the headline speakers at that event was Line’s CEO Akira Morikawa, who at the time explained that his company does not plan to establish regional subsidiaries in many countries – but rather operate in a more flexible manner as a sort of borderless company.

So far the company has been very good at doing business in this way, and it will be interesting to see if they can keep winning with this game plan as they push for more share around Asia and other parts of the world.

Line will join a number of prominent Japanese tech companies have a presence in Fukuoka already, including CyberAgent, Gumi, Mixi, and Paperboy just to name a few.

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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Next in Line: Japanese messaging app makes a push for India

Rick Martin 2013.07.02

Yesterday Japan’s Line Corporation rolled out a Hindi version of its website (line.naver.jp/hi) as well as two new television commercials targeting the Indian market. This echoes the company’s previous strategy of winning new users in countries like Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Spain. Now with 180 million users, 45 million of which are in Japan, India represents an area of great potential for Line. According to figures from IDC, the nation’s smartphone market grew 74% from Q1 2012 to Q1 2013. That market is overwhelmingly dominated by Android, with budget handsets proving popular. Line’s expansion to date has been fascinating to watch. Back in April we heard the company’s CEO Akira Morikawa explain that their localization strategy does not involve establishing a series of regional offices. They are trying to be a sort of borderless company, in a way. Line will visit a region to do business of course, but the company does not feel a need to be there perpetually. You can check out Line’s new television commercials for India below. It remains to be seen how effective these will be, but based on the company’s track record and India’s growing love of smartphones, I expect things will go very…

line-website-hindi — Line’s website available in Hindi

Yesterday Japan’s Line Corporation rolled out a Hindi version of its website (line.naver.jp/hi) as well as two new television commercials targeting the Indian market. This echoes the company’s previous strategy of winning new users in countries like Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Spain.

Now with 180 million users, 45 million of which are in Japan, India represents an area of great potential for Line. According to figures from IDC, the nation’s smartphone market grew 74% from Q1 2012 to Q1 2013. That market is overwhelmingly dominated by Android, with budget handsets proving popular.

Line’s expansion to date has been fascinating to watch. Back in April we heard the company’s CEO Akira Morikawa explain that their localization strategy does not involve establishing a series of regional offices. They are trying to be a sort of borderless company, in a way. Line will visit a region to do business of course, but the company does not feel a need to be there perpetually.

You can check out Line’s new television commercials for India below. It remains to be seen how effective these will be, but based on the company’s track record and India’s growing love of smartphones, I expect things will go very smoothly.

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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Line’s new ‘Neko Copter’ game is the top iPhone app in Thailand

Rick Martin 2013.06.13

This week Japan’s Line Corporation released a new game in cooperation with Square Enix. It’s called Neko Copter, and like most of Line’s mobile games it’s a pretty casual with easy-to-use controls and social integration with Line’s chat app. We’ve seen many of Line’s games rocket to the top of the app ranking charts here in Japan upon their release. But what’s interesting about the first few days of Neko Copter is that it has first reached the top of the charts in Thailand, while in Japan it is still only in 69th spot overall. This is a strong indication that the Line chat app platform is working well as a game distribution channel in Thailand too, where the company has already racked up more than 15 million downloads. If you’d like to get a closer look at the gameplay for Neco Copter you can check out our quick video demo above. If you want to try it for yourself, you can get it over App Store or on Google Play. This is not Line’s first collaboration with Square Enix, as the two companies previously worked together on Slime Shot which was released late last month. For more information on…

This week Japan’s Line Corporation released a new game in cooperation with Square Enix. It’s called Neko Copter, and like most of Line’s mobile games it’s a pretty casual with easy-to-use controls and social integration with Line’s chat app.

We’ve seen many of Line’s games rocket to the top of the app ranking charts here in Japan upon their release. But what’s interesting about the first few days of Neko Copter is that it has first reached the top of the charts in Thailand, while in Japan it is still only in 69th spot overall.

This is a strong indication that the Line chat app platform is working well as a game distribution channel in Thailand too, where the company has already racked up more than 15 million downloads.

If you’d like to get a closer look at the gameplay for Neco Copter you can check out our quick video demo above. If you want to try it for yourself, you can get it over App Store or on Google Play.

This is not Line’s first collaboration with Square Enix, as the two companies previously worked together on Slime Shot which was released late last month.

For more information on the growth of Line and its vast repertoire of apps, including Line Neko Copter, 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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What’s old is new again: Japan’s Line rolls out mobile novel service

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.06.04

It was just back in April that Line announced it was venturing into the mobile e-book industry with its Line Manga service. Now the company is digging even deeper into the publishing industry, adding ‘Line Novel’ to its repertoire starting on June 4th. What’s interesting about Line Novel is that all publications on the platform will be written by well known authors, exclusively for this platform. These exclusive novels are to be provided for free. Updates about the new releases will be shared on the Line Novel official account @linenovel. To make this initiative, Line partnered with major Japanese publishing house Kodansha, a familiar face for Line from their partnership with Line Manga. Line users can enjoy the electronic publications of their choice by adding the official account of particular novel to their friend list. Two to three episodes of each novel will be delivered weekly. To celebrate the beginning of this service, the company will launch a contest to discover new authors. The winner of the contest will be decided by public voting from Line users. All novels must be previously unpublished, and applications are open until August 15th. Japanese people are accustomed to mobile novels, or ‘keitai shosetsu’…

It was just back in April that Line announced it was venturing into the mobile e-book industry with its Line Manga service. Now the company is digging even deeper into the publishing industry, adding ‘Line Novel’ to its repertoire starting on June 4th.

What’s interesting about Line Novel is that all publications on the platform will be written by well known authors, exclusively for this platform. These exclusive novels are to be provided for free. Updates about the new releases will be shared on the Line Novel official account @linenovel.

To make this initiative, Line partnered with major Japanese publishing house Kodansha, a familiar face for Line from their partnership with Line Manga. Line users can enjoy the electronic publications of their choice by adding the official account of particular novel to their friend list. Two to three episodes of each novel will be delivered weekly.

To celebrate the beginning of this service, the company will launch a contest to discover new authors. The winner of the contest will be decided by public voting from Line users. All novels must be previously unpublished, and applications are open until August 15th.

Japanese people are accustomed to mobile novels, or ‘keitai shosetsu’ since the days of feature phones which goes way back to year 2006. So in a way, this is a return to an already proven concept, likely an initiative that will be successful for Line.

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

Line

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