Fast-growing Asian messaging service Line by numbers (lots of big numbers)
I’ve written enough about [Line] (line.naver.jp/en/), an increasingly popular messaging service in Asia, for TNW today, so here’s a fairly crude dump of data that the Japanese/Korean company released at its annual event today – consider it reasons to watch this company as it increases its international presence.
Line, for those that don’t of it…yet, started out as a more feature-rich version of WhatsApp, becoming one of the first to offer photo sharing, voice calling and [stickers] (thenextweb.com/asia/2013/07/12/stickers/).
These days it’s more akin to a social platform, that’s to say that beyond messaging it includes social networking, gaming, opt-in marketing and more.
The key data:
- 230 million registered users worldwide (of which 47 million from Japan – Thailand: 18 million; Taiwan: 17 million; Spain: 15 million; Indonesia: 14 million)
- Over 100 million Google Play downloads (iOS figures unknown)
- 63,000 new users each hour
- 52 connected apps (including games, content, utilities and messaging)
- 290 million downloads of all Line apps to date
- 190 million downloads of all Line games to date
- 7 billion messages sent to date
- 1 billion stickers sent to date
- 73 million active Timeline (social network) users per month
- Over $10 million in revenue from sticker sales per month – based on July 2013
- $27 million in revenue from gaming apps (entirely from in-app purchases) per month – based on July 2013
- $40 million in revenue from physical merchandising and character licensing to date
Its most popular apps include:
- 52 million downloads of Line Camera
- 32 million downloads of Line Pop (game)
- 25 million downloads of Line Bubble (game)
- 14 million downloads of Line Play (avatar world/game)
- An upcoming Sonic game with Sega will be interesting
And, also coming soon: Video calling, in-app shopping and a music service.
One thing Line won’t discuss is monthly active users. That’s probably because it trails WhatsApp (300 million MAUs) and China’s WeChat (235 million MAUs).
You can get a full read of Line’s announcements from today here at Startup-Dating, an English language tech blog in Japan.