LINE Exceeds 300 Million Registered Users Worldwide

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- LINE Corporation, owner and operator of the free call and messaging app LINE, today announced that it has exceeded 300 million registered users worldwide. Since its launch in June 2011, LINE has gained rapid acceptance as a global communication app with its voice and video calls, and wide array of sticker messaging features.

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In addition to East Asia, where LINE already has a strong foothold, registered users are growing steadily in Spanish speaking regions such as Spain, Mexico and Latin America. Currently, the company is focusing on gathering new users in India, Turkey, and West European countries including France, Germany and Italy by conducting localized promotional activities and strengthening partnerships with local mobile network operators and device manufacturers. In India, where the smartphone market is expanding rapidly, offering localized content and stickers featuring local celebrities has enabled LINE to reach 10 million users just three months after officially entering the market.

Furthermore, LINE user uptake is accelerating exponentially. Although it took LINE 19 months to reach its first 100 million registered users, the next 100 million registered users were achieved in just six months. In the past four months, however, the LINE registered user base has already grown by an additional 100 million bringing the total to 300 million users.

"We are extremely pleased to have achieved our target of 300 million users for the year such a short time after reaching 100 million users in January," said Akira Morikawa, CEO of LINE Corporation. "As the global market shifts towards smartphones, LINE is making its mark by stimulating communication through its expressive sticker messages, convenient voice and video calls, and games that users can enjoy with their LINE friends. Ultimately, this is what sets LINE apart from other simple communication tools that merely function as text messengers."

Morikawa continued, "We will continue to explore all possibilities of communication in order to develop even more new features and constantly enhance our service quality. We're aiming to reach 500 million users in 2014, and to develop LINE into the world's top communication service."

In addition, LINE is proud to announce the one year anniversary of its popular service, LINE GAME, which enables users connected via LINE to battle with their friends through various games. Currently, the total amount of global downloads across all LINE GAMEs exceeds 220 million. Also celebrating its one year anniversary is LINE PLAY, an avatar creator and suite of virtual environments that users can customize and use to communicate creatively with their family and friends.

Following the success of this recent milestone, LINE will continue to work towards enlarging its user base as a global communication service, and enriching the lives of its users.

About LINE Corporation
LINE Corporation is based in Japan and develops and operates the LINE app for smartphones. Since launching in June 2011, the LINE app has grown into a global service used in 230 countries, ranking first in the free app category in 60 countries. LINE offers free one-to-one and group messaging, as well as free domestic and international voice and video calls. LINE also includes a wide array of social elements such as fun and expressive stickers, a personal Home, a Timeline, and numerous LINE family apps, including LINE games and LINE camera. For more information about LINE, please visit http://linecorp.com/en/.  

SOURCE LINE Corporation