Freeware instant communications app
Line is a freeware app and service for instant messaging and social networking, operated by the Japanese company LY Corporation, co-owned by SoftBank Group. Line was launched in Japan in June 2011 by NHN Japan, a subsidiary of Naver.
Initially designed for text messaging and VoIP voice and video calling, it has gradually expanded to become a super-app providing services including a digital wallet (Line Pay), news stream (Line Today), video on demand (Line TV) and digital comic distribution (Line Manga and Line Webtoon).
Line became Japan's largest social network in 2013 and is used by over 70% of the population as of 2023; it is also popular mainly in Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand.
History.
Launch.
Naver had launched a messaging app called Naver Talk for the South Korean market in February 2011. However, rival Korean company Kakao dominated the market with its KakaoTalk app, launched in March 2010
Naver/NHN co-founder and chairman Lee Hae-Jin and a team of engineers were in Japan when the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami struck in March 2011. The earthquake and tsunami left millions without power and phone lines and SMS networks were overwhelmed. Since Wi-Fi and some 3G remained largely usable, many people turned to KakaoTalk, which was just beginning to gain a foothold in Japan. Lee was inspired to launch a messaging and chat app in the wake of the disaster and his NHN Japan team was testing a beta version of an app accessible on smartphones, tablet and PC, which would work on data network and provide continuous and free instant messaging and calling service, within two months. The app was launched as Line in June 2011.
Because Naver/NHN had a far superior cultural knowledge of what Japanese users wanted, and a much larger corporate marketing budget, Line quickly surpassed KakaoTalk in Japan. Line also offers free voice calls and, since Japan's telecoms make customers pay for both SMSs and smartphone calls, this feature, which KakaoTalk did not have, was a major selling point.
2011-2015.
Line experienced an unexpected server overload in October 2011 due to the app's popularity. To improve scalability to accommodate its user growth, NHN Japan chose HBase as the primary storage for user profiles, contacts and groups. In December 2011, Naver announced that Naver Talk would be merged into Line, effective early 2012.
In July 2012, NHN Japan announced the new Line features "Home" and "Timeline". The features allowed users to share recent personal developments to a community of contacts in real-time, similar to the status updates in social networking services such as Facebook. On April 1, 2013, Naver's Japanese branch name was changed from NHN Japan to Line Corporation.
Because it was tailored to Japanese consumers' tastes and offered free smartphone calls as well as texting, with the help of a massive marketing campaign it quickly outpaced its existing rival KakaoTalk for the Japanese market. It reached 100 million users within 18 months and 200 million users six months later. Line gradually replaced carrier-based email as the most popular method of communication in Japan.
Line became Japan's largest social network by the end of 2013, with more than 300 million registrants worldwide, of which more than 50 million users were within Japan. In October 2014, Line announced that it had attracted 560 million users worldwide with 170 million active user accounts. In February 2015, it announced the 600 million users mark had been passed and 700 million were expected by the end of the year.
Line was originally developed as a mobile application for Android and IOS smartphones. The service has since expanded to: BlackBerry OS (August 2012), Nokia Asha (Asia and Oceania, March 2013), Windows Phone (July 2013), Firefox OS (February 2014), iPadOS (October 2014) and as a Google Chrome App (via the Chrome Web Store). The application also exists in versions for laptop and desktop computers using the Microsoft Windows and macOS platforms.
Ownership.
In July 2016, Line Corporation held IPOs on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
In late December 2020, Line Corporation delisted from both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange, in advance of its absorption-type merger agreement with Z Holdings.
On March 1, 2021, SoftBank Group affiliate and Yahoo! Japan operator Z Holdings completed a merger with Line Corporation. Under the new structure, A Holdings, a subsidiary of SoftBank Corporation and Naver Corporation, will own 65.3% of Z Holdings, which will operate Line and Yahoo! Japan.
Market share.
By 18 January 2013, Line had been downloaded 100 million times worldwide. The number expanded to 140 million by early July 2013 and to 200 million by July 21. As of June 2016, Japan claimed 68 million users while Thailand had 33 million. As of February 2014, Indonesia had 20 million users, Taiwan 17 million, while India and Spain had 16 million each. In April 2014, Naver announced that Line had reached 400 million worldwide users and by 2017 this had grown to 700 million.
As of 2021 Line had 92 million users in Japan, and a total of 178 million across its four largest markets: Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand. A survey done in 2023 showed that, for the first time, more Japanese seniors preferred to use Line over email for communicating.
Features.
Line is an application that works on multiple platforms and has access via multiple personal computer operating systems. Users can also share photos, videos and music, send the current or any specific: locations, voice audios, emojis, stickers and emoticons to friends. Users can see a real-time confirmation when messages are sent and received or use a hidden chat feature, which can hide and delete a chat history (from both involved devices and Line servers) after a time set by the user.
The application also makes free voice and video calls. Users can also chat and share media in a group by creating and joining groups that have up to 500 people. Chats also provide bulletin boards on which users can post, like and comment. This application also has timeline and homepage features that allow users to post pictures, text and stickers on their homepages. Users can also change their Line theme to the theme Line provides in the theme shop for free or users can buy other famous cartoon characters they like. Line also has a feature, called a Snap movie, that users can use to record a stop-motion video and add in provided background music.
In January 2015, "Line Taxi" was released in Tokyo as a competitor to Uber. Line launched a new android app called "Popcorn buzz" in June 2015. The app facilitates group calls with up to 200 members. In June a new Emoji keyboard was also released for IOS devices, which provides a Line-like experience with the possibility to add stickers. In September 2015 a new Android launcher was released on the Google Play Store, helping the company to promote its own services through the new user interface.
Official channels.
Line includes a feature known as "official channels" which allows companies, especially news media outlets, publications and other mass media companies to offer an official channel which users can join and thereby receive regular updates, published articles or news updates from companies or news outlets.
Stickers.
Line features a Sticker Shop where users are able to purchase virtual stickers depicting original and well-known characters. The stickers are used during chat sessions between users and act as large emoji. Users can purchase stickers as gifts, with many stickers available as free downloads, depending on country availability. Purchased stickers are attached to an account and can be used on other platforms. New sticker sets are released weekly. Line's message stickers feature original characters as well as a number of popular manga, anime and gaming characters, movie tie-ins and characters from Disney properties such as Pixar. Some sticker sets, such as those that celebrate special events like the 2012 Summer Olympics, are released for only a limited time. Other sticker sets that support charity are known as Charity Stickers. For example, in 2016, Line released "Support Kumamoto" Charity Stickers to provide aid to victims of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. All proceeds earned from the sales of these stickers were to be donated to the Japanese Red Cross Society to provide financial support and aid for the victims.
The original default characters and stickers, known as Line Friends, were created by Kang Byeongmok, also known as "Mogi", in 2011.
There are over 1 billion stickers sent by worldwide users on a daily basis. The popular characters Milk &amp; Mocha began as stickers on Line in Indonesia.
Games.
NHN Japan created Line Games in 2011. Only those with a Line application account can install and play the games. Players can connect with friends, send and accept items and earn friend points. The game range includes: puzzles, match-three, side-scroller, musical performance, simulation, battle and spot-the-difference games. In September 2013, Line Corporation announced its games had been downloaded 200 million times worldwide.
On July 10, 2017, Line Games acquired NextFloor Corporation, developers of Dragon Flight and Destiny Child. On January 5, 2017, Line Games was announced as the publisher for Hundred Soul (formerly known as Project 100) by Hound 13.
On December 12, 2018, Line Games held a media event called LPG (Line Games-Play-Game) to introduce its games for 2019. Mobile games announced include: Exos Heroes (by OOZOO), Ravenix: The Card Master (also by OOZOO), Dark Summoners (by SkeinGlobe), Project PK (by Rock Square) and Super String (by Factorial Games). Project NM by Space Dive was also announced for PC. Games to be released on mobile and PC include: Project NL (by MeerKat Games) and Uncharted Waters Origins (by Line Games and Koei Tecmo).
On 10 Jul 2019, Nintendo released Dr. Mario World co-developed by Line Games. On July 18, 2019, First Summoner developed by SkeinGlobe was released.
Line Pay.
Line introduced Line Pay worldwide on December 16, 2014. The service allows users to request and send money from users in their contact list and make mobile payments in store. The service has since expanded to allow other features such as offline wire transfers when making purchases and ATM transactions like depositing and withdrawing money. Unlike other Line services, Line Pay is offered worldwide through the Line app.
Line Taxi.
Line Taxi was launched in January 2015 in partnership with Nihon Kotsu, a local taxi service in Japan. Like Line Pay, Line Taxi was not offered as a separate app but rather through the Line app where users can request a taxi and automatically pay for it when they connect their account to Line Pay. Line Taxi was discontinued on 31st August 2018.
Line Wow.
Announced alongside Line Pay and Line Taxi, a service that allows users to instantly access delivery services for registered food or products and services.
Line Today.
A news hub integrated in the Line app.
Line Shopping.
A referral program for online shopping. Customers get extra discount or earn Line Points by purchasing through the Line Shopping service.
Line Gift.
A gift sending services on Line. Customers can send gift via Line.
Line Doctor.
A matching platform for finding doctors online.
Line Lite.
In 2015, a lower-overhead Android app was released for emerging markets called Line Lite. This supports messages and calls but not themes or timeline.
It became available worldwide in August 2015.
In January 2022 Line announced the discontinuation of Line Lite, taking effect on the 28th February 2022.
Limitations.
Line accounts can be accessed on only one mobile device (running the app version) or one personal computer (running the version for these). Additional mobile devices can install the app but require different mobile numbers or e-mail addresses for the Line account.
If "Line Lite" for Android was installed and activated, the user was told they will be "logged out of the normal Line". This message did not make clear that it was impossible to log back in to the normal Line, which would delete all history data when next launched. Line Lite has now been discontinued.
On 7 November 2024, Line earlier than version 12 ceased working, refusing to even start up to allow the user to access their data, with later versions refusing to work on existing hardware/operating systems, just generating random error messages along the lines of Nql7f_65 and IQvAj_65.
Security.
In August 2013, it was possible to intercept a Line chat session at the network level using packet capture software and to reconstruct it on a PC. Messages were sent in cleartext to Line's server when on cellular data but encrypted when using Wi-Fi most of the time.
Until