Line Looks To US Market
Japanese Messaging App Wants To Say It With Stickers
The messaging app marketplace is a crowded place right now,
with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger and numerous others competing for our
attention, and even companies like Pinterest are getting in on the game. One
could be forgiven for thinking that you’d have to have something pretty special
to go up against the billions of dollars at stake for whoever can capture the
attention of the market.
Japanese messaging app Line thinks that they have what it
takes. The company is already huge in Asia, with 450 million monthly users, and
it’s now looking to expand into the potentially lucrative U.S. market.
It sounds strange to a Western audience who, despite the
mass panic over childhood illiteracy that’s been going on ever since someone
first lol’d, still use actual characters from the alphabet to communicate. But
it’s huge in Japan and apart from any profits they make off the actual
messaging service, Line sells a vast array of everything from stuffed toys to
phone cases featuring their characters. This may seem absurd until you consider
that Rovio made $195 million dollars last year selling franchised Angry Birds
merchandise.
Even within the app users can buy new sets of stickers,
themes for the messenger, and even games – a built-in revenue stream which must
make companies like Facebook, who are struggling to monetise their messaging
platforms, more than a little envious.
Line has so far built a loyal following based on its wide
range of expressive sticker characters, who can be used to convey messages
which may otherwise be too time-consuming or difficult in the complex and
highly formalised Japanese language. Whether that tendency will translate to
the American audience remains to be seen. Line has made some inroads in Spain
where it has gained some 16 million users, partly through highly publicised
partnerships with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona football teams to
produce stickers based around the clubs.
Likewise in the U.S. Line has partnered with Disney to
produce a game, Disney Tsum Tsum, in the hopes of raising the company’s
profile. It may take more than this to overcome the cultural barriers which
stand between success in Japan and worldwide recognition, however. But Line is
trying hard, and it has recruited some of the top app architects from Japan and
beyond to help. As Takeshi Idezawa, Line’s chief operating officer, claims: ‘It’s
messaging, evolved.’
Douglas is an English Literature graduate who has written about everything from music to food to theatre, now a content creator for Social Media Frontiers. No topic too large or too small. Follow him @DouglasAtSMF.
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Line Looks To US Market
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Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Friday, August 08, 2014
Rating:
Anonymous
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