LINE, a smartphone messenger app made by NHN Japan, the Tokyo-based subsidiary of the Korean web powerhouse, continues to amaze.
The app, which makes it possible for users to call or message each other for free, now boasts a whopping 30 million users – just after hitting 20 million last month. It has 13.5 million users in Japan alone.
It’s especially popular because of its cute “sticker” feature (“stickers” are essentially icons or images), which can best be described as “next-generation emoticons”:
LINE was first available for free on iOS and Android only, but there are now versions for Windows and Mac, too.
The app was completely designed, created and marketed (with quite a big budget, anecdotally speaking) by the NHN team in Tokyo.
This chart shows how LINE did since launch (on smartphones and feature phones only):
