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Tag: line music

  • Line Thailand expansion plans include business

    Line Thailand expansion plans include business

    Mobile platform Line Thailand has announced bold plans, targeting business uses.

    Part of Korea’s Naver internet service company, Line sees Thailand as its second-largest strategic market following Japan.

    Line Thailand MD Ariya Banomyong says the company aims to boost its presence not just as a mobile messenger but as a smart portal providing innovative and “useful” services.

    Banomyong says many businesses are wondering how to access customers seeking specific answers, and that ultimately Line would be more than just a message service. Already the company has launched a mobile delivery agent service, Line Man, and established a joint venture with Bangkok’s mass transportation business BTS, Rabbit Line Pay, which supersedes the Line Pay mobile payment business started last June.

    “I believe we definitely need to dominate the mobile food-delivery business because street foods are a very important part of Thai life,” says Banomyong. “Before Line Man, only a few restaurants offered a delivery service.”

    Banomyong aims to start localised services that can be adopted in major Line markets like Korea and Japan. “The Thai subsidiary will boost co-operation with startups here to seek new business opportunities.”

    Line services launched in Thailand in 2012, so far attracting 33 million subscribers – nearly half the country’s population. Line has added such services as official accounts, sponsored stickers and a content creators’ B2B market.

    For the offline-to-online sector, the company has started Line Shop, Line Gift Shop and Line At, an official account service for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

    “Only about 500,000 out of 2.8 million SMEs in Thailand are online,” says Banomyong. ”To offer them a broader online environment, we provide a simple yet effective platform with lower costs.”

    In December, the company also started the television content-streaming service Line TV in collaboration with media groups such as GMM. Its Line Music service has recorded more than 7 million cumulative downloads.

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  • Messaging app Line launches music streaming service in Japan

    Messaging app Line launches music streaming service in Japan

    Mobile messaging giant Line on Thursday launched a digital music streaming service in Japan, stepping into a largely untapped market still dominated by sales of compact discs.

    The new business — which comes weeks before Apple is expected to enter the Japanese market with its own streaming service — offers unlimited access to a collection of more than 1.5 million songs for 1,000 yen (US$8) a month.

    For those on a budget, a 500-yen fee buys 20 hours of listening time.

    Line said it would expand its music library to five million tunes by the end of the year, and to 30 million in 2016.

    The service will feature top-selling artists, from Sam Smith to Michael Jackson, as well as likes of Japanese diva Ayumi Hamasaki and Korean band Big Bang.

    Line Music said it plans to set up accounts for artists where they can send messages and offer glimpse of their lives to their fans.

    Japan is the world’s second largest music market, estimated to be worth $2.6 billion in 2014, after the $4.8 billion US market, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

    But packaged media such as CDs account for about 78 percent of Japanese music sales, contrasting sharply with the US market markets where digital downloads are soaring.

    Many Japanese production companies have focused on established retail channels for CDs while issues over licensing have also hampered growth in the streaming business.

    Apple says its new Apple Music will launch on June 30 in 100 countries, offering up a heavyweight rival to online services such as Spotify, Pandora and Jay Z’s fledgling Tidal.

    Line’s popular messaging app, which is hugely popular in Japan and other parts of Asia, lets users make free calls, send instant messages and post photos or short videos. It combines attributes from Facebook, Skype and WhatsApp.

    Best known for letting users send each other cute cartoon “stickers”, Line is hugely popular in Japan, particularly among teenagers. It is reportedly planning an initial public offering later this year.

    The company’s music venture is also jointly held by Avex Digital and Sony Music Entertainment. Universal Music also plans to join the venture, Line Music said.

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