Japan’s Emoticon Factory Awash With Orders
Akira
Morikawa, CEO at Japanese social networking platform Line Corp., is
used to being stopped on the street. Accompanied by gestures and
grimaces, the request is always the same: the creation of a new emoticon
to express a particular feeling when words fail.
Japan’s
smartphone based social networking service Line president Akira
Morikawa speaks about Line’s global strategy before the press in Tokyo
on May 9.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Akira
Morikawa, CEO at Japanese social networking platform Line Corp., is
used to being stopped on the street. Accompanied by gestures and
grimaces, the request is always the same: the creation of a new emoticon to express a particular feeling when words fail.
Line, born in the communications breakdown after Japan’s tsunami and quake, has outpaced both Facebook and Twitter’s initial growth, in large part due to the cuteness of its virtual stickers – cartoon characters or colorful emoticons – that help round out an instant message with some whimsy and humor. Despite a vast lineup, demand is high for more.
“Some people want to apologize through Doraemon, others through Anpanman,” Mr. Morikawa told reporters, referring to two popular anime characters at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Thursday. Requests for new stickers are now snowballing as Line’s messaging service goes abroad. “A bow may work in Japan, but not in other countries,” Mr. Morikawa said.
Line has amassed 150 million users worldwide in two years on the exportability of Japanese cuteness, particularly in other parts of Asia. More than two-thirds of Line’s users are from outside Japan, raising demand for a more diverse range of stickers.
In the three months ended in March, Line’s sales rose by 92% from the previous quarter to ¥5.8 billion. Roughly half of those sales came from games and another 30% from its stickers. Mr. Morikawa declined to say whether Line now makes a profit. (He argued that that Line’s freedom from having to make a profit or come up with a long-term business plan was its biggest strength, and allowed it to focus on the tasks at hand.)
Staff at Line, spun out of the Japanese arm of South Korean Naver search engine operator NHN Corp. , are now accustomed to dealing with and expressing raw emotions, Mr. Morikawa said.
“When you work with such a diverse group of people, you stop prefacing your sentences with apologies or disclaimers – it wastes precious time,” Mr. Morikawa said. “We sometimes are almost fighting, but brute honesty helps us have real discussions and make the right choices in the end.”
Line, born in the communications breakdown after Japan’s tsunami and quake, has outpaced both Facebook and Twitter’s initial growth, in large part due to the cuteness of its virtual stickers – cartoon characters or colorful emoticons – that help round out an instant message with some whimsy and humor. Despite a vast lineup, demand is high for more.
“Some people want to apologize through Doraemon, others through Anpanman,” Mr. Morikawa told reporters, referring to two popular anime characters at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Thursday. Requests for new stickers are now snowballing as Line’s messaging service goes abroad. “A bow may work in Japan, but not in other countries,” Mr. Morikawa said.
Line has amassed 150 million users worldwide in two years on the exportability of Japanese cuteness, particularly in other parts of Asia. More than two-thirds of Line’s users are from outside Japan, raising demand for a more diverse range of stickers.
In the three months ended in March, Line’s sales rose by 92% from the previous quarter to ¥5.8 billion. Roughly half of those sales came from games and another 30% from its stickers. Mr. Morikawa declined to say whether Line now makes a profit. (He argued that that Line’s freedom from having to make a profit or come up with a long-term business plan was its biggest strength, and allowed it to focus on the tasks at hand.)
Staff at Line, spun out of the Japanese arm of South Korean Naver search engine operator NHN Corp. , are now accustomed to dealing with and expressing raw emotions, Mr. Morikawa said.
“When you work with such a diverse group of people, you stop prefacing your sentences with apologies or disclaimers – it wastes precious time,” Mr. Morikawa said. “We sometimes are almost fighting, but brute honesty helps us have real discussions and make the right choices in the end.”
2012.11.30「LINE」8000万ユーザー突破 台湾では人口の「ほぼ半数」が利用
ITmedia
10月25日に世界7000万人を達成し、
Line：日本版的Facebook
誕
生於東京、才17個月大的應用程序“Line”如今正試圖重新定義智能手機時代的社交網絡。
Line開發商NHN Japan的首席執行長森川亮(Akira Morikawa)說﹐我們已經在亞洲形成了風潮﹐我們希望這種風潮擴散到美國、歐洲等地方。NHN Japan是韓國NHN Corp.在東京的子公司。NHN Corp.運營著韓國的主要搜索引擎兼門戶網站Naver﹐而Naver差不多就是谷歌(Google Inc.)和雅虎(Yahoo Inc.)的韓語混合體。
用戶加入Line之後﹐程序會自動尋找智能手機聯繫人中的其他用戶。用戶可以選擇將智能手機上的特定聯繫人排除 在Line聯繫人列表之外﹐還可以通過交換用戶名稱加入新的Line聯繫人﹐而不必交換手機號碼。用戶可以用Line發送純文字信息或帶有虛擬貼紙（古怪 或者可愛的彩色表情符號或卡通人物）的信息。
雖然被認為已經大獲成功﹐Line面臨的挑戰也是巨大的。這款通信應用擁有眾多競爭對手﹐如 Skype、WhatsApp和其他一系列通信服務。僅在亞洲﹐它的競爭對手就有韓國的KakaoTalk和騰訊控股(Tencent Holding Ltd.)的微信(WeChat)。微信擁有2億用戶﹐大部分是在中國。
市場研究公司Canalys駐新加坡分析師Jessica Kwee說﹐Line要向已經擁有一個佔優勢的服務的國家拓展﹐將是一個很大的挑戰﹔用戶通常不想擁有多個即時通信平台。
她還提到﹐Line在亞洲之外幾乎沒有影響力﹐其可愛的虛擬貼紙對於世界其他地方的人們可能也沒什麼吸引力。
研究公司尼爾森(Nielsen)的高級分析師Yoshiya Nakamura說﹐部分亞洲國家已經擁有其本土社交網站﹐但這些網站在國內市場之外並沒有走多遠。他說﹐Facebook和推特在亞洲各地都受歡迎。
據Yoshiya Nakamura說﹐Line的強項是它提供了一個專門針對智能手機的平台。Skype和Facebook承擔了PC時代的對話與社交紐帶的功能﹐而Line相信它擁有成為智能手機時代對話與社交紐帶的潛力。
移動互聯網流量正在猛增。據互聯網分析公司StatCounter的數據﹐截至今年9月﹐移動終端佔全部互聯網流量的12%﹐同比將近翻了一番。這個趨勢在亞洲更加突出。亞洲移動終端佔全部互聯網流量的20%﹐而北美的佔比在10%左右。
今 年Line系列應用程序還擴大到照片分享服務Line Camera、益智遊戲Line Birzzle、繪畫應用Line Brush﹐以及用於發送虛擬明信片的Line Card。在主打通信應用之中﹐它還加入了類似Groupon的優惠券功能、與朋友分享最新情況的時間軸功能以及一個類似推特的面向名人和企業的服務。
NHN Japan說﹐Line的重點是擴大用戶基礎﹐雖然收入不一定隨之擴大。這種說法跟很多初創企業相似﹐其結局並不一定美好。Line應用是免費的﹐大部分收入來自虛擬貼紙的銷售（每個最高售價兩美元）﹐以及企業和其他公共機構使用官方Line賬戶交納的費用。
NHN不願透露Line的總收入﹐或從企業及其他公共機構官方賬戶取得的收入。它說﹐8月份虛擬貼紙的銷售收入為3億日圓（約合380萬美元）。
Line是在日本2011年3月11日的災難之後亮相的。當時開發者注意到﹐基於數據的信息比傳統語音通話更容易通過陷入混亂的蜂窩網絡傳輸。
截至上個月﹐這款應用的註冊用戶超過了7,000萬﹐其中約3,200萬在日本。雖然在230個國家和地區都有用戶﹐但大部分非日本用戶都是在台灣和泰國。現在它正集中精力增加美國和中國的用戶數量。
JURO OSAWA / DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI
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