Line back to the Chinese market as early as the end of 2012

Tencent Technology News June 13 news, mobile chat application developer Line to the media revealed that the company plans to expand to the Chinese market later this year, and the establishment of localization team, through targeted content and functions to further tap China Market potential.

Hyunbin Kang, Head of Business Development at Line, said at the Mobile Asia Expo: "China is a very strategic and attractive market where hundreds of millions of smart phone users will be added in the next two years and China is our target market."

Line is a division of South Korean Internet giant Naver in Japan. It develops free text chat applications for smartphones. The most important feature is that it offers a variety of cute emoticons. Since its launch in 2011, the service has attracted 400 million registered users worldwide and competed with WahtsApp and WeChat.

Line has diversified its revenue-generating services, including virtual goods and digital stickers. The company last year achieved revenue of 5.1 billion US dollars, much higher than WhatsApp's 20 million US dollars. Informed sources, Line as early as possible this fall in Tokyo. But HyunbinKang declined to comment on the listing.

However, analysts believe it is not easy to enter China because WeChat has more than 300 million active users in China and has established its dominance. "WeChat has achieved tremendous scale and benefited from network effects and first-mover advantage. If everyone around you is using WeChat, why there is a reason to change services?" IDC analyst Shiv Putcha, Say.

HyunbinKang said Line as early as the end of 2012 to start the Chinese market, the company began studying the local user preferences and industry conditions. They plan to launch large-scale promotion in China and launch customized services. HyunbinKang believes that the interaction with Chinese users is the key to solving this market. They are also ready to attract users to design their own stickers and share revenue with them.

Line has provided a localized version of "even me" in China. The company is also ready to use infiltration of popular Korean drama, and has received some success, adding a large number of Chinese users. But HyunbinKang declined to give specific figures.

Although the Chinese market has great potential, due to the scattered content and channels, Line has to promote its services and attract loyal customers by cooperating with other enterprises.

It is worth mentioning that Line has attracted 17 million and 10 million registered users respectively in China Taiwan and Mexico markets, mainly due to the promotion of localized TV commercials. "As Chinese consumers prefer to surf the Web, TV commercials may not work well, so we plan to launch the show by sponsoring web plays and video clips on popular video sites in China," said Hyunbin Kang.

HyunbinKang also disclosed that the company will be the first to launch mobile shopping in Japan later this year to other Asian regions, but did not disclose the details. And in order to earn more revenue through mobile e-commerce, they will also step up their payment services to ensure a better shopping experience. HyunbinKang said that in order to expand their business, Line may also carry out the acquisition. (Long song)