Messaging App Line Now Brings in Nearly $100M a Quarter

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...

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

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

edit: a line

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

Ye good stuff. Prefer line over the spying app Viber