In brief
The article’s discussion attributes LINE’s difficulties in Europe and the US to established messaging habits and the need to use the same app as others. It also cites WhatsApp’s early arrival and broad platform support as reasons for its high market share.
As smartphones have become widespread, many people have gradually grown accustomed to using messaging apps to stay in touch with others. In recent years, LINE has even become a widely popular social platform in Taiwan. Recently, however, a user on PTT’s Gossiping board asked why LINE, despite its popularity in Taiwan and Japan, had yet to break into the European and US markets.
The original poster said that LINE was extremely popular in Japan and Taiwan, accounting for roughly 90% of users, and that its offshoot, LINE Pay, was also used only in Taiwan and Japan. Noting that mainland China used WeChat, the poster wondered why LINE had ultimately failed to gain a foothold in Europe and the United States.The poster even remarked, “It seems they previously tried promoting it through product placements in European and American music videos, but apparently nobody used it anyway,” and asked, “Why can’t LINE expand beyond Taiwan and Japan?”
The post immediately sparked lively discussion, with users responding: “People already use FB and WhatsApp,” “Because everyone in Europe uses WhatsApp or FB,” “Nobody uses it; once you’re late, you can’t break in,” “What can you do with something like this if you’re the only one using it?” and “Thailand also uses LINE.” Others commented, “Everyone’s forgotten iMessages. There are plenty of iPhone users. But if you study abroad, WeChat is also very popular, since there are so many classmates from mainland China,” and “People in Europe and America don’t use crappy stickers.”
In fact, another user had previously discussed “why WhatsApp is the dominant app abroad.” Their analysis suggested that when a new type of device emerges, established brands retain an advantage, but users become more willing to try new things. WhatsApp was founded in 2009, when only the second generation of the iPhone had been released and the first Android phone had been launched just a few months earlier. In an era of intense competition, WhatsApp supported not only iPhone and Android but also almost all the other platforms, including BlackBerry, Nokia Symbian/S40 and Windows Phone. It catered to users who had already switched to smartphones as well as those who had not, so its market share was naturally high.
Original article URL: https://bit.ly/2kl3Ho9