Tokyo, Japan – February 26, 2014 – LINE Corporation, owner and operator of the free call and messaging app LINE, announced the release of three new services at its “LINE Showcase 2014 Feb.”, held today in Tokyo at Space O, Omotesando Hills.

LINE, a communication application offering free voice and video calls and sticker messages, has shown significant growth  since its release, and now boasts 370 million users worldwide. In the midst of exponential growth of the global market and intense competition among mobile services, LINE has announced that it will be taking on several new challenges under the theme “Beyond LINE,” in order to continue evolving and further develop as a piece of essential communications infrastructure. 

The main new services announced today are as follows.

Scheduled release: March 2014

Release regions: Japan, the United States of America, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, and the Philippines

URL: http://line.me/en/call 

LINE Call enables users to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobile phones domestically and internationally. LINE has always been offering free voice and video calls, but this service has been limited to calls between LINE users only. With the release of LINE Call, the app is now responding to those needs by allowing users to make low-cost calls even to those who are not registered with LINE.

LINE Call’s main features include:

1. Any LINE user can start using the service immediately without going through a setup process.

2. Clear and uninterrupted high-quality voice calls.

3. Low-cost domestic and international calls to landlines and mobile devices

For a limited time only, calls made to approximately 1.3 million stores and businesses who own a LINE@ account, a separate service marketed towards corporate clients, or are listed in the telephone directory database provided by Zenrin DataCom Co., Ltd can be made free of charge using LINE Call.

Notes

1. The service is known as “LINE Denwa” in Japan, and “LINE Call” globally.

2. If the user’s mobile device is registered in any of the release regions, they will be able to make calls to landlines and mobile devices anywhere in the world using LINE Call.

For more details, please refer to the separate press release on the LINE Call service.

LINE Business Connect provides LINE’s official accounts API to corporate customers, and allows them to customize it for various purposes. In addition to the one-way distribution of messages offered by standard LINE official accounts, corporate users can now send targeted, optimized messages to specific users.

With the user’s permission, corporate customers can even link their LINE accounts with their IDs in the company’s own system and use LINE as a customer relationship management (CRM) or business solution tool . 

 

Using this service, it may be possible for users to order a pizza delivery simply by sending a sticker of a pizza to the official account, receive a LINE message reminding them to return a rental before it is due, or call for a taxi effortlessly by sending their location information through LINE. The possibilities are endless with LINE Business Connect.


 

LINE is planning to offer the service to some corporate customers in order to create case studies of how LINE Business Connect can be customized for different industries, and will gradually roll it out to more businesses.

Businesses interested in LINE Business Connect may inquire about the service at the following website:

Scheduled release: April 2014

Release regions: Global

URL: http://creator.line.me 

 

LINE Creators Market is a brand new platform on which all LINE users can sell their original stickers on the LINE Web Store , regardless of their occupation or age, and whether they are professionals, amateurs, individuals, or businesses. LINE’s stickers so far have only featured LINE’s original characters, famous mascots, and corporate-sponsored stickers. Now, LINE is opening up the chance to produce stickers for and sell them to its user base of 370 million people worldwide.

It is free to register to the LINE Creators Market. Creators can sell sets of 40 stickers at JPY 100 per set once the graphics are approved by LINE, and will receive 50% of the proceeds.

LINE hopes to answer to the needs of even more users by allowing users and creators globally to produce and sell their stickers on LINE, and looks forward to accelerating LINE’s global expansion with the further localization of stickers through this effort.

A website detailing the instructions on how to register and guidelines on sticker creation will launch today, and sticker submissions will be accepted from April.

LINE aims to further strengthen and accelerate its business development both domestically and abroad with the convenience brought about by these new services.