This a report about LINE, prepared by my student as part of the social media seminar I am teaching. It explains how Japanese brands are using this group messaging application for commercial purposes.

1. LINE
~How companies are using this
popular application to attract
customers?
Prepared by Mio O.
Supervised by
Adam Acar

2. 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!?

3. Functions

Free phone call

Chat

Group chat

Time line

Coupons

Games

Stamps

4. Similar Applications

There are many similar smart phone
based messaging applications,

Skype, Kakao talk, WeChat, Viber, Comm...etc
Viver
Kakao talk
Skype
LINE
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Table1: Percentage of people's usage of messaging
application

5. 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. A stamp from
LAWSON

Distribution of coupons

Campaign information

Latest news about their products

6. How Do Companies use LINE?

Companies often send
information about their
new stamps and
campaigns only to LINE
followers.
Coca cola's Christmas stamps

Many companies have
campaigns for big
events such as
Christmas, New Year
and Valentine's day.

TSUTAYA had a
campaign for celebration Shiseido's Christmas/ New Year
stamps
of LINE users reached
100million.

7. 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. )

8. Results
Update # Time # # Inclu # of
frequency Pictures Coupons Campaigns des Emoticons
URL
au Once or 5 12:00 1 3 7 9
twice a 17:00
week
Sukiya Twice a 5 11:00 6 0 10 6
week
TSUTAY Once in 2 9~10:00 0 4 5 11
A 1~20days (+2 18~19:00
videos)
Shiseido Once in 2 12:30 0 2 7 6
7~10days
Lawson Once a 3 10~12:00 6 0 6 8
month
Coca Once in 3 12:00 0 5 10 18
Cola 7~20days 19:00

9. Companies' reply to our message 1

10. 2

The responses are
sent automatically.

Companies can't
read what we send.

11. When users start following a brand they get
a few messages right away like these…

12. 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.

13. Some messages from Coca Cola and Lawson

14. Some messages from Shiseido and Sukiya

15. 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

16. 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,

17. Recently 56 LINE users were
asked…
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,

18. 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!