

Messaging App Line Now Brings in Nearly $100M a Quarter - yipct
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/10/messaging-app-line/

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wf
My friends and I are are huge users of line (we're in the US) and have been
for a long time. When a large portion of our group of friends went to Japan it
allowed us to message in a group without any extra charges and stickers (the
digital kind) are REALLY REALLY fun.[1] I would say I've spent around 10-12
dollars (5-6 packs) on stickers in the last 6 months alone. I was actually
more confused when I came across things like Group Me and WhatsApp because
they're not as fun as Line imo (I later figured out that it wasn't really
marketed in the US). The gimmicks for me to get new stickers are also insanely
effective, e.g. downloading other Naver/Line apps/games and adding sponsored
accounts (like Rafael Nadal) to get free stickers.

[1]They have stickers for basically everything, from Japanese animes to Disney
Characters to Snoop Dog. They also do special occasion stickers, like
Halloween etc. The original stickers were none of those though, just a few
original characters they thought up. In fact my favorite sticker is one of
their originals, "Brown":
[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RNLBc7XVLm8/UVl9flhwIiI/AAAAAAAAAO...](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RNLBc7XVLm8/UVl9flhwIiI/AAAAAAAAAOE/1ZbFUbfHq7o/s1600/photo+%281%29.PNG)

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daniel-levin
> followed by stickers, which make up another 20 percent of their sales

That's a shitload (approx 20m USD) of stickers

edit: a line

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hkmurakami
They have 49MM users in Japan alone, and Japanese users are famously loose
with digital goods spending (their mobile gamers spend many times that of
counterparts abroad).

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HowardMei
But it's not recurring revenue. I can't imagine someone keep buying 10+ packs
of stickers. Only stickers, no game credits? There's something I fail to
understand here.

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idProQuo
You simply lack the imagination ;)

People buy the new sticker packs so that they'll have stickers nobody else
has. Other people will start getting these new sticker packs, and thus the
"trendsetters" need new sticker packs in order to maintain their uniqueness.
LINE is happy to keep releasing new stickers to feed this cycle.

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uniclaude
I have a hard time understanding how WhatsApp could take any market from Line
where they dominate, and this is not only because of the stickers, but mostly
because the application itself offers an objectively superior experience.

Line feels like an universally available, polished, and wannabe cute version
of iMessage, while WhatsApp feels like a clunky and poorly designed app that
you're supposed to pay. Moreover, Line has a desktop client, which, even if
not as well done as their mobile app, does not have the bloat of Skype.

Where I live, in Japan, people use Line so much that even without a Facebook
account, I do not feel disconnected anymore. I know what is going to happen,
and my friends have no overhead to reach me.

This said, I would totally understand if it can not reach the US or some
European countries, where people would not be attracted by the very Asian
cuteness that comes with it.

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iamjustinm
Living in the Philippines where I watched Line take control I asked many
Filipinos what they like the most and why

\- More free stickers, larger variety (this is by far the #1 reason. The line
stickers are fantastic and there's many different characters and expressions.
You get at least 100 free and they release new free ones often)

\- First to allow sending short videos

\- Constant commercials running on major television

\- They don't send as much notification spam as KakaoTalk or Viber

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hkmurakami
Bemusing to see this after my friend (who is an engineer at LINE) bemoaned the
seeming lack of recognition of the company in the States.

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yipct
I think they are trying hard to localize their emoji to crack into the States,
based on this blog post: [http://www.oneskyapp.com/blog/secret-monetizing-
messaging-ap...](http://www.oneskyapp.com/blog/secret-monetizing-messaging-
apps-localizing-emoji/)

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calbear81
I joined Line in the last month mainly because my girlfriend thought the
stickers were really cute and as we started to use it more and more we have
found it a very effective way to convey how we're feeling or for a quick
check-in with a "sweet dreams" or a "hi!" sticker without having to type out a
message.

I started creating new group chats with different sets of friend and find
myself sharing photos and texts to selective groups instead of broadcasting
them on Facebook and tagging those I want to notice it. I also feel like I
have a choice on whose messages/stickers I want to see whereas on Facebook I'm
constantly ingesting the entire feed.

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rilut
From my _personal_ experience, Line isn't as reliable as WhatsApp in bad
network connection. And the "Line Event" account is somewhat spammy.

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josephagoss
Can someone figure out if they are selling more in digital stickers than
traditional stickers.

If they sell $80 worth of stickers per year (If they keep up $20M per quarter
in sticker revenue) I wonder what the output for all USA sticker sales would
be.

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recuter
So this is an Asian WhatsApp type thing that capitalized on its stickyness to
push games and stickers? What is the formula for the meteoric rise?

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madeofpalk
> WhatsApp

That's funny, because the only people I ever saw WhatsApp were Chinese.

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mattw1810
Don't forget the Dutch, it's used by pretty much every smartphone user over
here.

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madeofpalk
Oh I'm sure it is. I've heard it's popular in Southern America as well?

I'm just speaking from my experiance in Australia: WhatsApp is a Chinese
thing.

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smtddr
FWIW, WhatsApp is huge in Nigeria; at least the major cities like Lagos.

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anyfoo
I also use LINE, mainly because stickers are... a lot of fun, surprisingly
(though I just use the plentiful free ones).

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snake_plissken
Can someone explain the stickers thing? Basically, people are buying new
created emoji to use in their messages?

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rkrzr
Does anybody know what technology stack Line is running on? Do they use Erlang
for their backend like WhatsApp?

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uniclaude
IIRC, No Erlang to be seen there. Line uses mostly C++ and Java, and this is
reflected in their job offers[1].

[1]:[https://linecorp.com/career/position/](https://linecorp.com/career/position/)

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axisms
It's been pronoun for messaging service in Japan. like I will line you. Meet
in the line. like..google it

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hajderr
Ye good stuff. Prefer line over the spying app Viber

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kaushikt
spying app ?

I think i am missing something here. I use Viber all the time.

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hajderr
This is what I got from a quick search.

[http://grahamcluley.com/2013/07/viber-hacked-syrian-
electron...](http://grahamcluley.com/2013/07/viber-hacked-syrian-electronic-
army/)

