4. What is LINE?
Source: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/line/id443904275?mt=8
Free messaging app
Available on all smartphone devices (iPhone,
Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Nokia)
and even on PC/Mac or tablet.
Free Voice and Video Calls
Free built-in stickers
Over 10,000 stickers collection
(Artist, Cartoon, Brand)
Can share photos, videos, voice messages,
contacts and location information easily.
Official Accounts for artists, celebrities,
brands and TV shows as a friend to get
exclusive news and coupons only available
on LINE.($65,000 per yr)
13. Place
Pop up store Theme park
Online
Source: https://www.behance.net/gallery/15327189/LINE-THEMEPARK
Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/line-opens-its-first-ever-
line-friends-pop-up-store-in-north-america-300007810.html
19. SWOT
Strengths
1. Free App/ Free video call
2. Largest sticker collection
3. Well-developed in specific country
4. “Read” function
5. Dynamic promotion
6. Multiple family App & games
Weaknesses
1. Can’t delete send messages
2. There is no online status
3. Fraud & Advertisements harass
4. Most of stickers and themes are not
free
5. Hard to penetrate mature market
Opportunities
1. Smartphone & tablet prevail
2. Support 17 languages & multi
platforms
3. Aim for Emerging Markets
4. Becoming a total service platform
Threats
1. Strong competition
2. Government censorship
3. Different telecommunication rate
21. Recommendation
Do deeper research on users’ preference in the market LINE want to expand.
Cute stickers failed to generate same interest in different countries.
Reopen the door to the world’s largest market - China.
LINE has been blocked or censored by the China government.
Develop more functions on LINE.
Like banking, e-commerce, taxi service, etc
Become a total service platform provider.
Decrease harassment by advertisement, games and fraud
The harassment prevail on the LINE. Increase the identification checked.
Games
Acquire or work together with popular game apps.
Product placement in TV series
Create awareness and buzz.
Source: http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2014/02/27/texto-cinema-nouvelle-convention-250275
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/02/clash-of-clans-vs-game-of-war-which-is-better/
Wait! The Jp ambassador just LINE me.
So what is LINE?
LINE is a free messaging app. Just like whatsapp in US, wechat in china
And LINE is available on all smart phone devices, ios, android, windows phone, blackberry, nokia , tablet and pc or mac.
LINE also have video and voice calls.
And the most important one is, LINE has stickers.
And very large sticker collection allow u to download or purchase.
Stickers might be designed by artist, partner with cartoon character like Disney or Dreamworks, also some business will launch their stickers to promote their brand.
You can share photos, videos, voice messages , contact and location info to your friends on line very easily.
Line has official accounts for artist, brands, tv shows, they can send u news and coupons by line.
In my point of view
LINE is a free msg app has a lot of stickers
And those stickers help u communicate better and easier.
And this is a conversation happened on line every day.
User tend to send stickers than texting.
So where does LINE comes from?
Back to march 2011. Japan surfer though a serious earthquake and lots of telecommunication structures has been destroyed
So the engineer in NHN japan develop LINE to communicated by using internet resource.
And LINE belong to NHN corporation
Next human network and it is a internet content sercve operator in Korea
And them change their name to NAVER corporation
According to comScore’s report, Naver was one of the top five search engine in the world
They have many subsidiary companies like hangame, which is a internet game company pouplared in korea and Japan
and the other famouse subsidiary is line!
And line corporation had different subsidiary products
They have LINE app,
Mixradio, which is a music stream service. Like sportify
And LiveDoor is a web portal, just like yahoo or sina web.
OK, lets take a look at the important updates of LINE
NHN japan Launched LINE for public use in JUNE 2011.
And they add more functions to LINE,
At the begning, they add stickers, and free calls functions.
Release family app like line card and line camera.
Add timeline and home functions,
launch line games. As u can see, after they launch line games , LINE accumulate downloads with a higher speed.
And LINE have accumulate 1 billion downloads within 3 years since it launched.
LINE corp is a productive company. They develop lots of different apps
LINE camera is a camera app allow u to modify photos with stickers, filters and text.
LINE@ is a more recent one, it allow u to create a LINE account for ur business. It can broadcast msgs and promote ur website,
And consumers can find stores near u by using line@.
LINE is an closed social group, for friends, family and couples,
then LINE@ is an open social group. for client, customers and fans.
And lots of them are combine with ur line account,
in other words, if u want to use them, u need a line account first.
LINE have 21 different game apps now.
As same as their family apps, u need to have a line account for apply a game account.
And your frineds on LINE can help you or give you life in the LINE games..
Most of time the purchase and downloads happened online like google play itunes
or happen in-app purchase.
But line also has physical place like pop up store or theme park to sell related product or create awareness.
Lets talk about the financial part of line,
LINE has a very good performance last year.
It has growth 114% in 2014 compare to 2013.
LINE has 3 major income
Game, stickers and advertising.
Game means in app purchase, for some item or special use in the game
Stickers means you can purchase different stickers allow you do use in the future conversation in line app
The average price for stickers is $2 dollars.
Advertising is like create your own company’s line account to do advertise.
For the promotions . Lines has many promotions way
Here are some promotion way I think is quite special
First, line use celebrity and tv series to do product placement, and create celebrity stickers allow fans to purchase.
Second, line has their official cartoon, which describe the office life of line’s main characters.
Third, real life event, making a line call and can win flight ticket.
Four, use physical place like pop up store or thyme park to generate awareness and sell related products.
There are a very strong competition inside the communication area.
Each one might different users and functions on it.
And different use situations.
So here is the most downloaded im app in the world,
And some of data has changed… for example the whatapp plus is no longer available,
And the most downloaded app in USA and Canada is FB msg now.
OK, so as you can see LINE is popular in Japan Taiwan, and Thiland.
In China they have wechat,
And whatapp seem quite popular in many other country.