LINE is a proprietary instant messaging application initially released for smartphones in June 23 2011, and has since expanded to desktop computers and other mobile phone such as Blackberry, Windows phone and Nokia Asha after its tremendous hit and popularity among 230 countries. In addition to basic text messages, LINE allows users to send images, video and audio message and make free VoIP calls. The company has further launched a platform, LINE Channel which integrates more service and even native apps to provide more fun and enriching user experience.
The great success of LINE can be attributed to the pervasiveness of smartphones and the company’s design strategy: building a “Smartphone-life platform” and an ecosystem (economic zone) by “offering various content and services developed by its external business partners for the 45 million users worldwide.” The concept of “Smartphone-life platform” aligns well with Tim O’Reilly’s web2.0 principle, software above the level of a device.
The principle can be clearly elaborated by Microsoft developer David Stutz in his Advice to Microsoft regarding commodity software, which is cited by Tim O’Reilly as well, that:
Useful software written above the level of the single device will command high margins for a long time to come.
So let’s take a look at 7 awesome practices that LINE has employed to fully utilize this principle:
As mentioned above, LINE was initially designed for smartphones like Android and iOS platforms but soon with its rapid success, the application now is available on multiple operating systems including: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Blackberry, Windows Phone and Nokia Asha with up to 10 languages.
| Benefit: allow the app to be accessed anytime, anywhere. |
LINE app requires user’s permission to access location data for specific functions such as LINE camera, “Shake it” and QR code scan for adding friends (see picture below), and location sharing with contacts (see picture below). Users can take further social interaction like get direction to where the contacts are or send the location info to another chat. More location aware features like coupons will be released in the near future.
| Benefit: Location aware contents is essential for personalization. |
 |
 |
| Suggestion: Location aware interaction such as QR code coupon or place check-in can make the service more personalised and open up new business opportunity with local business owners. |
LINE has successfully turned the mobile into a social platform for instant message, multimedia sharing, and even contents creation through LINE Camera. In attempt to reach a “Smartphone-life platform”, LINE Channel has introduced service and function including: Line Tools, Time Line (Like Facebook TimeLine for status update), LINE Game, LINE Talk Novel, LINE Fortune, LINE Coupon, LINE Sounds Shop and LINE Coin (virtual currency).
Initially, LINE adopted Redis as the app’s primary storage and data structure server and after the integration of Time Line feature, they switched to HBase for accommodating increasing workload and exponential growth patterns such as Time Line data.
The client contact data is stored on LINE server for easy access and data migration to another device, which make the process of synchronization between different devices easier and more efficient.
LINE Camera, LINE Brush and LINE Card allow users to generate and personalise the contents easily with their simple UI and fascinating functions. All the contents can be shared and exported to other app or social media.
LINE features several simple, one-click functions such as “Shake it” to add friends and one-click sharing. The purchase at its sticker shop is nearly one-step as well, despite the process of entering password for Apple account. LINE Camera also features one-click photo sharing on other social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Sina Weibo, Tumblr and etc.
LINE allows users to seamlessly store, access and synchronize data across devices such as smartphones and desktop computer. Though there’s still an issue that only the contact data is stored and can be retrieved from the server while the conversation log is stored in device. Another problem is that once users link LINE app with their mobile phone number, the app can only be activated on one mobile device (PC version is not affected).
| Suggestions: In my case, I have LINE installed on both iPhone and iPad Mini, it happened to me so many times that all my conversation data was completely deleted on one device when I activated another one. Though the chat data synchronization between PC and mobile version is quite reliable and real-time, I still wish that I can access the app across multiple mobile devices.The other concern with “Smartphone-life platform” is the accessing speed. Most of the features require a bit long responding time than other apps. For example, a lot of users have been complained about the message sending speed of LINE is not as good as its arch-rival, Whatsapp. |
List of references applied in the article:
1. Japan’s Line App Evolves into Platform, Expands into… Um… Everything, Rick Martin, July 3, 2012
2. Line messaging and VoIP app adds ‘timeline’ and ‘home’ features, throws in new platform for app integration, Mat Smith, Engadget, Jul 3, 2012
3. Software Above the Level of a Single Device, by Tim O’Reilly, Nov 28, 2007
4. LINE Storage: Storing billions of rows in Sharded-Redis and HBase per Month, by Shunsuke Nakamura, April 26, 2012
5. Advice to Microsoft regarding commodity software, by David Stutz, 2003
edie cheng 
Pingback: Web 2.0: Software above the level of a Single Device | Sukshan Sakdsrinarang
Hi Sukshan 🙂
Thanks for the comment.
Yeah I did mention that under the section of best practice 2 that the main usage of location aware in LINE is for sharing location with contacts. What LINE has done better is that it integrated with Google Map API to allow navigation open on Google Map App through one click.
I believe that location awareness will be the future focus of personalisation of LINE. Simply by implementing location aware coupons can create tons of opportunities for cross-business collaboration. What do you think?
Hi,
First of all, very creative on the use of LINE stickers. Secondly, you covered many aspects of what makes LINE a great application which is also very well done. On the topic of syncing devices, I usually log in my LINE account using my Android phone and PCs. I don’t have any problem with syncing but when I changed my phone to another Android phone, the information suddenly were wiped out. Also I had another missing contact incident happened when I simply upgraded the LINE application.
-Sukshan
Hi Edie!
I have started to use LINE this year to keep in contact with my Japanese friends! I think it is a really useful application and I didn’t know about the LINE Channel you mentioned. I find the most useful features to be the free calls, stickers and photo decoration. An interesting read, thanks for sharing!
Hi Rhys 🙂
Thanks for the reply.
Yeah I do find LINE both interesting and effective to use. In fact, I even purchase a lot of stickers since nearly all my friends have more collections than me! The UI is so intuitive that even my mum uses this to keep in contact with me.
I am looking forward to its future development and the introducing of coupons and more useful tools featured in LIN Channel 🙂
Hey Edie
It is an excellent post, indeed. There are so many things I can learn from you. First of all, the funny LINE stickers were highlights for me, and I can easily understand how does it meet the pattern. It is impossible to organize your content without fully understand the pattern in this week. Lastly, the rich inline references allows me to explore the content widely. Thank you for writing such a good post. And I have few questions about LINE.
1. Do you know which company created LINE? I used to think LINE was created by a Korean company, because when I log in I saw it was powered by NAVER(which is the main Korean search engine.)
2. Do you know KakaoTalk? It is a similar application to LINE. Normally, my Korean friend like to use it. When comparing LINE with KakaoTalk, I think LINE is more popular, because lots of my Chinese friends are using LINE as well. Then what do you think is the key feature that make LINE so popular in such a short time ?
a. What I heard is that it could the power of the funny stickers which gained female’s love.
Hi JunHui 🙂
Thanks for your valuable opinion!
To answer your questions,
1. According to the company, Line was launched on June 23, 2011 by NHN Japan after the Tōhoku earthquake as a enhancement for the damaged communication system. The NAVER company listed in the article refers to NAVER JAPAN.
2. I know Kakao Talk but haven’t used it, though my Korean friends always invite me to give it a try. I believe the rapidly success of LINE comes from it user-centre design concept: the employment of stickers is definitely a great approach for personalisation. Plus the entire ecosystem of LINE camera, LINE tool and LINE channel, combined to provide an ultimate and comprehensive user experience.
Good stuffs always go viral in no time. 🙂
hey Edie,
line is a good example on this pattern, and i found that desktop version of line is better when at home as it can actually type faster on a real keyboard!!!
i have been using line since it released and enjoy using stickers, lol! unlike other similar chat applications available now, i like line more! and in my opinion, i think its unique function (eg stickers, timeline, etc) make it stand out of those similar applications! what do you think?
any comments made to my blog are appreciated 🙂
http://tseychen.wordpress.com
Hey Tse-Yen 🙂
Thanks for you comment!
I totally agree with you! I found the version for PC is awesome and the data can be synchronised in no time as well! Unlike Skype which always has issues sync my contacts data and conversation history.
But what I don’t like is that only one mobile device can have LINE activated. I have both iPhone and iPad mini, and I love to use the speech recognition on iPad, but since my iPad doesn’t have 3G, I can only use it when I am home
I am eagerly waiting for the change of their policy about how many devices can be used and hope my concern can be solved soon!
If you want to use an app that can access more than one mobile device (as well as PC/Mac) via a single account then use Viber and forget about Line.
Problem is all my contacts and group chats are in line and its not possible that 45 other people use another chat app just because i have to switch devices every 4 days … sigh…