LINE
Prepared by Mio O.
Supervised by
Adam Acar
~How companies are using this popular application to attract
customers?
What is LINE? LINE is one of the popular social networking
services(SNS) in Japan. There are 41.5million registered Line users in
Japan. It reached 100million users in 19 months.
→facebook 54months, Twitter 49months It is used in over 230 countries and got no.1 in
41 regions. 100MILLION users in only 19MONTHS!?
Functions
Free phone call Chat Group chat Time line Coupons Games Stamps
Similar Applications
There are many similar smart phone based messaging applications,
Skype, Kakao talk, WeChat, Viber, Comm...etc
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
LINE
Skype
Kakao talk
Viver
Table1: Percentage of people's usage of messaging application
Company usage of LINE
There are about 30 companies using LINE (As of January 30, 2013)
They design unique stamps (a digital item/sign/logo) to make customers feel closer to them.
Distribution of coupons Campaign information Latest news about their products
A stamp from LAWSON
How Do Companies use LINE? Companies often send
information about their new stamps and campaigns only to LINE followers.
Many companies have campaigns for big events such as Christmas, New Year and Valentine's day.
TSUTAYA had a campaign for celebration of LINE users reached 100million.
Coca cola's Christmas stamps
Shiseido's Christmas/ New Year stamps
Reserch about what companies sent
Six companies from different industries(au, Sukiya, TSUTAYA, Shiseido, Lawson, Coca cola) were analyzed.
10 latest messages they posted on LINE were collected.
Contents (How many pictures, coupons, campaign information and URLs they sent. )
ResultsUpdate frequency
# Pictures
Time # Coupons
# Campaigns
IncludesURL
# of Emoticons
au Once or twice a week
5 12:0017:00
1 3 7 9
Sukiya Twice a week
5 11:00 6 0 10 6
TSUTAYA
Once in 1~20days
2 (+2 videos)
9~10:0018~19:00
0 4 5 11
Shiseido Once in 7~10days
2 12:30 0 2 7 6
Lawson Once a month
3 10~12:00 6 0 6 8
Coca Cola
Once in 7~20days
3 12:0019:00
0 5 10 18
Companies' reply to our message 1
2
The responses are sent automatically.
Companies can't read what we send.
When users start following a brand they get a few messages right away like these…
What do they say?
- “Thanks for adding me as your friend.” and
- “We are going to inform you about our coupons and campaigns from now on.” These two messages were sent by all six companies.
- Au, Sukiya and TSUTAYA’s messages include that …”we cannot reply or read your messages…
- Also, Sukiya and Coca Cola sent a message saying if our messages are bothering you, please turn off notification. They even sent an page that explains how to turn of notifications.
Some messages from Coca Cola and Lawson
Some messages from Shiseido and Sukiya
What do they say?
• Au: How are you? I’m doing well.
• Sukiya: What about going to eat lunch at Sukiya? It tastes good!
• TSUTAYA: a famous saying from movie
• Shiseido: I’m sorry but we can’t read your message, so if you have any questions, please go to this page.
• Lawson: Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Go to this page and check out my advice.
• Coca Cola: Limited campaign for LINE
Recently 56 LINE users were asked…
About 60% of LINE users are following at least 1 brand
Sample: 83 College Students who are registered at a public university in Japan. 80% of the respondents reported having a smart phone. Among those who had a smart phone 56 answered this question,
BRANDS are way more popular than celebrities…
Sample: 83 College Students who are registered at a public university in Japan. 80% of the respondents reported having a smart phone. Among those who had a smart phone 56 answered this question,
Recently 56 LINE users were asked…
References
http://www.techinasia.com/line-100-million-infographic/
http://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/1208/20/news103.html
http://consult.nikkeibp.co.jp/consult/news/2012/0726sp/
http://markezine.jp/article/detail/16139?date=1130711
http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/2925/1/MPRA_paper_2925.pdf
Thank you!