Chat application line targeting the United States: kill into the Facebook backyard

Japanese chat application line lead: In order to attract more users, the chat app line, which was born in Japan, looks to the U.S. market and plans to confront it with social-networking predators such as Facebook and Twitter, the foreign media wrote today. To boost their efforts, they are also planning to increase marketing spending by more than one times this year. But this "first development, after the money" model has been questioned by some people in the industry. The following is the full text of the article: into the United States there is such a chat application, it was born in Asia, away from Silicon Valley, but in the competitive social networking market has developed rapidly, attracting 100 million of users even faster than Facebook 3 times times. It's line. Now it is moving into Facebook and the Twitter backyard: the United States. Line currently has 38% of users from Japan, but the app's developer, NHN Nippon, is ready to expand its tentacles, set up a marketing team in the United States, plans to launch a joint promotion with local companies, and sign a content Transfer protocol. NHN Japan's chief strategy and marketing officer June Msuda said the company was still in the investment phase with the goal of attracting 1 billion of users globally. "We are going to the U.S. market this year, and our current focus is not on turning a profit, now is not the time to think about money." June Masuda said. Line is unique in the chat information can be added to a variety of cartoon images and "stickers." But for Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft Skype, line is just one of the many rivals in Asia who want to dominate the mobile device communication channels of their users. South Korea's KakaoTalk are targeting Vietnam and Indonesia in an effort to expand on the basis of existing 82 million users. After June 2011, line broke through the 100 million user mark in just 19 months, while Twitter and Facebook used 49 months and 54 months respectively. Tom Taulli, an independent IPO analyst, Taulli that with its unique features such as group chats, line has been able to stand out among Facebook's many challengers. However, Clark Fredricksen, a emarketer analyst at the US market research firm, believes that the veteran Chat service provider is still strong and will not be easily snatched by the line. Market development "in the United States, the development of the instant messaging and chat market is clearly changing, and it is essential to provide a mobile experience across a wide range of mobile devices." "There is a clear opportunity in this area, but large platforms that are big enough and innovative enough are still able to withstand the challenges of foreign rivals," says Fredricksen. "NHN Japan's parent company, NHN, is South Korea's largest search engine company. Since June 1, 2011, the company's share price in Seoul has risen 40% per cent, whileSouth Korea's Kospi index fell 9%. Facebook has also fallen 32% since its IPO last May 18. "NHN is trying to open up niche markets in the US and Europe," said Park Dae up, a South Korean securities analyst at the Eastern Securities Company. It is not easy to expand aggressively in these developed countries, after all, Facebook and Twitter have dominated. Their goal is to be an influential second-tier enterprise. "Operating system Facebook official data shows that as of last December, the company's monthly active users of more than 1 billion, of which 82% from the United States and Canada outside the market. According to Semiocast, a market-research firm, Twitter accounts have exceeded 500 million last June, including 140 million in the United States. WhatsApp spokesman Nilagi Arrola Neeraj Aurora, a cross-platform Instant messaging application based in California, said the company has attracted more than 100 million users through the Andorid platform. They also plan to offer unlimited services to Apple devices at a price of $1 a year to attract more users. In addition to the text content, line can also provide free voice call service, which is now compatible with Google Android, Apple iphone, Microsoft Windows, BlackBerry and PC mainstream platform. According to NHN, the app has topped Apple's list of free apps in 41 countries. When users of the app broke 120 million on March 9, about 45 million were in Japan and 15 million in China, Taiwan and Thailand. But NHN did not disclose data from other markets. Privacy concerns NHN June Masuda believes that services such as line and KakaoTalk have been successful in Asia, largely because users in these areas are particularly concerned about privacy concerns. Facebook and Twitter are mostly popular with more open status updates, and these Asian chat apps are more focused on private communication. "Closed and private communications have a certain market demand. June Msuda said. In addition, Asian consumers are more accustomed to paying for applications and services than Westerners. Although line's basic services are free, they can generate revenue by selling stickers and gaming and corporate accounts. Still, NHN believes line's global appeal will rise. Although no official targets have been set, June Masuda said the company hopes to increase its users to 500 million to 1 billion within two or three years. "We want to expand globally at all costs," NHN Japan President Akira Morikawa said in a speech in Tokyo last week. The company said February 26 it would work with Nokia to introduce line into the company's Asha phone. Line said in a statement on the official website that the plan will be in mainland China, Malaysia, India this monthAsia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and other deployment. In addition to selling stickers, line also plans to develop new services and create more revenue by creating an enterprise marketing platform, June Masuda said. But the company has yet to disclose its current revenues and profits. Mitsushige Akino, a fund manager at an investment management company in Japan, said the line's strategy of "first growth and then making money" might be hard to work. "They are in the construction phase of value," Nhn said. But as they speak, many similar services have sprung up. "he said. Rival Mitsushige Akino believes that any competitor can provide games, stickers and advertising bits, so new ideas must be used to retain users. The total number of Kakotalk users has doubled since January 2012. Tencent micro-letter as of January 21 registered users of more than 300 million, at this time the service was released just 2 years. Tencent has also set up a team to study the possibility of expanding the U.S. market. "Even if the scale is large, line still needs to explore a pattern to attract users to spend money." I don't think it's easy. "Mitsushige Akino said. Increased marketing NHN said last month that it would split line, and the South Korean economic daily March 18 quoted unnamed bankers as saying the new company could be listed in Japan by the end of next year. "We don't need money. June Masuda said. He added that the company does not have a listing plan at the moment. Jay Park, a Samsung Securities analyst in South Korea, said in a study released on February 25 that line would spend 250 billion won (about 224 million dollars) this year to promote the app, up more than a year ago. He reckons the line is valued at about 7.9 trillion won (about 7.1 billion dollars), about 11% of Facebook's $61.6 billion trillion worth. "We expect the line to be more than 300 million users by the end of 2014." Although there are concerns that line marketing costs will increase dramatically, we believe that this is necessary to increase market share. "said Parker. (Si yuan)