The Japanese are known for spending a lot of time on social media. They now have one of the biggest social media apps, Line, that most people around the world have never heard of. Recently reaching 50 million users in just 399 days, “Line” is soaring with the help of celebrity endorsements and influential Japanese advertising.
“Line” is an app that allows its users to connect through their smartphones, tablets, and desktops to make free calls and send free text messages. Line was launched in 2011 by NHN Japan after the Tohoku earthquake. The name refers to the lines that were formed outside the public phones after the disaster. According to Adage, it is the fastest growing network in the world with women being the app’s main users.
“In January, Line's total number of Japanese followers hit 40 million and studies show that 60 percent of Japanese women in their 20s and 30s have an account. Nine months ago, nearly everyone in Japan was using Twitter, now, most of have since switched to the homegrown network, Line.”
Line and its parent NHN designed the network to motivate users not only to follow brands and products but to take action and buy. This has made Line extremely desirable to marketers in retail and in return pays Line handsomely to keep it up. The combination of the free calls, free texts and the ability to view and buy products makes it very attractive to its users.
What’s surprising it that Line’s communications are mainly made privately between existing friends, replacing email and phone calls, so its activities are less noticeable when compared to Facebook and Twitter, where people share things more publically. It’s success is due to its massive number of users. Unfortunately, Line has also attracted negative media attention because of incidents when it’s been used for criminal activity, such as stalking. Since some of those accusations, Line has been trying to make its network safer for its users while focusing on expansion.
According to the Japan Times;
"The numbers show that Line is not only expanding in Japan but is attracting many users from foreign countries, mainly in Asia. English, Korean and Chinese languages are supported on its apps. While there are, of course, many competitors in this arena, a Japanese social-network service — supported by non-Japanese users from its inception — is very rare. It would be a wonderful thing for Japan’s tech industry if LINE became a real player in the international Internet market."
On Nov. 25, it announced that it had 300 million registered users worldwide, about 50 million of whom are from its homeland, Japan.