Mobile messaging app Line signs up 5 million users in India

Mobile instant messaging app, Line,
which officially unveiled in India three
weeks back, claims to have 5 million
registered users in the country.
It's worth pointing out that while the
brand marketing campaign for the app,
including two television advertisements
started this month, the app has been
available for download on app stores of
various smartphone platforms for a
long time. So it's likely that the 5
million figure also includes users that
signed up before the India marketing
initiative started.
Commenting on the achievement,Jun
Masuda, Chief Strategy and Marketing
Officer (CSMO) of Line Corporation,
said, "We are extremely happy with the
response to our service in India. This is
the testimony that we are in the right
market with the right product and at
the right time. We believe that the
framework for web based messaging
has already been laid with consumers
hooked to it and now are looking for a
product that can elevate their
communication experience through
richer features and functionality. Line
comes in at the right time with an app
that will transform the way people
communicate in India".
"Our aim is to achieve 10 million users
in India in a few months. We are
confident with our feature rich
product and market specific
localization, India will be one of the
key markets contributing to our global
growth," he added.
Line is similar to other P2P mobile
messengers such as WhatsApp, Viber,
WeChat and Hike, but its USP is its
stickers and voice chat features. The
app offers more than 8,000 stickers,
out of which some are part of premium
packs which need to be bought via in-
app purchase. This is a major
monetization model for the app. Line
even inks 4 week deals with brands to
offer customised stickers.
Line also monetizes through tie-up with
brands to create official brand
accounts and artist accounts. The
Japanese app company informed that it
had signed a deal with Sony India
under the same arrangement.
The app is popular in markets such as
Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, and Spain,
and is now targeting the Indian
market. It intends to offer localised
stickers and support for Indian
languages, in the near future.
Line claims to have 200 million
registered users worldwide, as on July
21, 2013, and says that 80.4 percent
among these are monthly active users.
The app is available on all major mobile
OS platforms, including iOS, Android,
Windows Phone and BlackBerry.

Line app vs WhatsApp evaluated for 2013 chat

There are some great social
networking and communication apps
available for smartphone and tablet
users, and two that are of interest are
LINE and WhatsApp. These are both
extremely popular and are available
for Android and iOS devices from
Google Play or the App Store. We
thought we’d take a look at the Line
app vs. WhatsApp, giving an idea of
what they each have to offer and
evaluating them for 2013 chat. What
we’d really like to know is what
readers think of these apps?
We’ll begin with the LINE app, and this
one is available for both Android and
iOS devices. It offers a good
experience for social networking with
unlimited calling and messaging 24
hours a day, that’s free voice calls
and free messages. LINE is now
available in more than 230 countries
around the world and has over 180
million users. Features include high
quality voice calls, a message
function with icons, photo sharing,
location information, ways to express
yourself with stickers and Emoji, and
much more.
LINE also has a timeline feature and
you can leave messages and
comments, and there are now LINE
official accounts for popular
celebrities, and also money saving
opportunities via coupons. Data
transfer fees may be incurred though
so if you have an unlimited mobile
price plan that’s good news. LINE is a
free app and for Android devices it’s
available from Google Play here. This
is compatible with devices running
Android 2.1 or later. For iOS devices
head to iTunes here. This one is
compatible for iPhone, iPad and iPod
touch running iOS 4.3 or later. Both
the Android and iOS apps have
recently been updated with minor bug
fixes.
Moving on to WhatsApp Messenger,
and this is another app that is highly
rated. As its title suggests this is a
smartphone messaging app, and it
uses 3G or WiFi where available, to
enable you to easily communicate
with family and friends. If you switch
from SMS to WhatsApp you get the
first year free and it’s then $0.99
yearly afterwards. Once you’ve
downloaded the app, chat is unlimited
and there are no hidden costs. You
can send photos, videos and voice
notes to your contacts and enjoy group
chat, and there are also no
international charges if your friends
are also using the WhatsApp
Messenger app.
WhatsApp integrates with your
existing phone address book and
there’s no need to log in and out as
you are always connected. If you
miss a push notification, messages
can be saved offline for later retrieval,
and other features include location
sharing, contact exchange, custom
wallpaper, custom notification sounds
and much more. The Android
WhatsApp Messenger app is available
free from Google Play here and is
compatible with devices running
Android 2.1 or later. WhatsApp for iOS
devices is available from iTunes here
priced at $0.99. It’s compatible with
iPhones running iOS 4.3 or later.
Taking a look through user reviews of
these apps we can see that both apps
have a lot of fans. LINE for Android
manages a rating of 4.1 stars while
WhatsApp attains an extremely high
4.6 star rating. Many of the comments
about LINE have a lot of positive
things to say about the stickers
available. Looking at comments for
WhatsApp reveals that many also
people love this app. However, in
reviewing comments from the last few
days it seems that there are some
complaints about the app crashing
lately and some iOS users regret that
the app cannot be used with the iPad
or iPod touch.
We’d like to gauge opinion about LINE
vs. WhatsApp by asking readers to get
involved. If you use either of these
apps, what do you think about it?
Maybe you’ve used both apps but
have settled on your favorite? If so,
which do you prefer? Let us know with
your comments.