LINE the cross-platform free calls and messaging app, today announced that the number of users in India has reached 10 million mark. The company expects to cross 20 million users by the end of the year in India.
Japanese messaging application LINE is aiming to become the No. 1 smartphone communication app in India, and is shoring up its plans for further marketing development and also rops in Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif as its brand ambassador.
LINE has differentiated itself from existing applications with the recent roll-out of free video calls and video sharing capabilities. From the day of official launch in the market, voice calls have witnessed 3,200 % growth and 1,800% usage increase has been attributed to stickers. Additionally, messages have touched an exciting 700% increase since June 2013.
LINE is also going to launch new TV commercial campaign on October 11, coinciding with the Diwali festival. In a global first for the company, LINE will be releasing free India-exclusive stickers featuring photographs of Katrina Kaif.
The free call and messaging app, LINE, has been registered over 10 million times in India alone and the numbers were achieved after only 3 months from the official release, making it the fastest growing region globally.
Akira Morikawa, CEO, LINE said "India has overtaken Japan to become the country with the third largest number of smartphone users. It is only natural to anticipate further growth of the smartphone market in India, and we believe that it will become a vital territory as LINE expands into the global marketplace."
‘Since launching LINE in July of 2013, the number of users in India has skyrocketed to an astounding 10 million, far exceeding our expectations. We haven’t experienced such rapid growth in any other countries to date’, he added.
Talking about the association with Katrina Kaif, Morikawa said, ‘With the help of our marketing partnership with Katrina Kaif, along with other partnerships with entities in India, we are confident that we can easily surpass 20 million users by the end of the year.’
In addition to its partnership with Katrina, LINE has also partnered with Sony India, who will pre-install LINE on their flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z1 and Xperia C, as well as launch a cooperative marketing campaign.
Sony Music Entertainment is opening official accounts with LINE which will cater to fans of major genres of music including Bollywood, Indipop, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and International music.
