According to Line’s global strategy and marketing chief Jun Masuda, Line has “gained five million users only in three weeks” in India.
Jun also notes that Line faces stiff competition for users in India from mobile messaging services like Whatsapp (more than 250 million active users globally) and Facebook Messenger, as well as other Asia based apps like WeChat.
“Our platform is not about being a simple messaging platform. We have a lot of other services which we offer, and it is built in within the platform,” Jun says. “Even in India we would like to offer games and news and many other features. We have already launched games in the local Indian languages.”
Japan’s Line recently hit 200 million registered users, with 70 per cent of its membership outside of Japan. Jun also compares Line’s progress to that of WeChat and KakaoTalk by saying “I think we have been able to fare much better.”
