LINE, the messaging app most well known in Asia, shared its Q1 2014 earnings today, posting revenue of $143 million or a 223 percent increase year-over-year.
It was a 19 percent increase from Q4 2013, and the company also announced it has hit 420 million users. It doesn’t say if those are active, however, when it hit 400 million users in early April, they were touted as “registered” users.
While LINE is very popular in Southeast Asia and Spain, it’s seen a growing trend in South America via Chile and Venezuela thanks to local marketing campaigns, and TV commercials.
The messaging app is free, but makes money through in-game purchases and stickers. Companies can also sponsor stickers, and its Sticker Shop now features over 500 famous people and cartoon characters.
“The marketplace for messaging services has undergone tremendous change since the start of the new year, with buyouts and investments in such services occurring across the world. In the midst of all this, we are grateful that we could maintain expansion of our user base, growing our potential as a platform as well as our profitability.
In addition, according to the American app ranking publication App Annie, LINE ranked first for Android apps and second for iOS apps in both app revenue (games excluded) and publisher revenue (games excluded) in March of this year, further solidifying the fact that our presence now exists on a global scale.”
WhatsApp is still the king of messaging apps with 500 million active users, but in just the first quarter of 2014 alone, LINE brought in 42 percent of its revenue for all of 2013.
Photo credit: Jon Russell
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