NHN to attract 300 mil. LINE users

By Kim Yoo-chul

NHN aims to attract 300 million users for its chat application Line by the end of this year, according to industry sources.

It reached 100 million users last year and said that the new goal sounds implausible but it is within reach given the explosive growth over the past 12 months.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that the Line has become a major application on mobile devices, just like Facebook for PCs. Although the target looks quite challenging, we will try hard to write another chapter in the history of our chat application business,” said a senior industry executive by telephone, Tuesday.

The chat application was initially made by NHN Japan and launched in June 2011.

If NHN makes it to 300 million users this year, it would reach a level only a few social networking service giants have reached before. Only Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Sina Weibo are currently at that level.

The executive said NHN has been accelerating its efforts for various promotional campaigns for the service inspired by the steady uprising momentum. So far, Line is available in some 230 countries and the chat service was ranked as first in terms of downloading in 61 nations, according to the company.

Another source said the aim is to strengthen the service in the United States, the home turf of Facebook, by collaborating with interested parties and strengthening marketing activities.

But the sources declined to reveal more about the business plans citing the sensitivity of the issue.

Despite NHN’s upbeat outlook for Line, there’s cutthroat competition in the chat application market.

While Line has been proving its marketability, rival Kakao Talk had about 80 million users as of the end of last year, pushing NHN’s top management to find new growth models.