2016.10.06 ALL
Stickers Incorporating Photos Also Now Available
Tokyo, Japan — October 6, 2016 —Creators on the LINE Creators Market (https://creator.line.me), a platform created by LINE Corporation to enable users to create and sell their own LINE stickers, can now sell smaller sticker sets with as few as eight stickers starting today, October 6. Also starting today, the LINE Creators Market has lifted its prohibition on the use of photos in sticker sets.
The LINE Creators Market has commenced the following initiatives to make sticker creation more accessible for even more users and allow for even greater creative freedom.
1. Sales of Sets with as few as 8 Stickers
Creators hoping to sell stickers until now faced a high hurdle of creating 40 stickers for a single set. However, creators can now sell sets with a minimum of eight stickers, with a few other size options in between: For non-animated stickers, creators can choose to create sets of 8, 16, 24, 32 or 40 stickers, and for animated stickers can choose sets of 8, 16 or 24 stickers.*1 As a result the creator’s sticker production time can be cut by 80% (creating 8 stickers instead of 40), and children or people unconfident in their drawing skills can more casually try their hand at creating a sticker set.
*1: Cannot change sticker total for sets currently on-sale or under-review.
2. Creation/Sales of Photo-Based Stickers
Previously, stickers using photos were prohibited by the sticker review guidelines, but with the enhancement of LINE’s review system, these guidelines have been revised to allow creators to create and sell stickersincorporating pictures of anything from themselves, to their friends, family, animals or scenery.*2 This will enable a variety of new scenarios for users to make use of the Creators Market--for example, creating original stickers for a friend’s birthday or wedding featuring pictures of that friend and gifting them the stickers via LINE’s gifting features.
*2: Guidelines for sticker creation can be found here: https://creator.line.me/en/guideline/
As before, creators can set sticker prices from 50 Coins using in-app currency, or, in the case of Japan, at JPY 120 or up (equivalent price levels selectable in the respective currencies of other regions). After App Store or Google Play handling fees (30%) are deducted, creators receive 50% of remaining revenue (35% of total sales).*3
*3: The actual amount received will be the payment amount minus withholding taxes. Tax percentages will vary according to the countries in which the creator and purchaser reside. Details and schedule for payment deposits are listed in the FAQ on the LINE Creators Market My Page.
LINE Creators Market is a platform through which users can sell LINE stickers and themes they have created themselves to other LINE users worldwide through the main LINE app's sticker and theme shops as well as the web-based LINE STORE (https://store.line.me/).*4 Since its launch in May 2014, the platform has steadily grown as a venue for creative activity, with the number of registered creators from around the globe ballooning to a current total 610,000 users, who have created over 320,000 sticker sets and themes.
*4: Creators’ stickers were launched on May 8, 2014 and creators’ themes were launched on April 26, 2016.
Through the LINE Creators Market, LINE aims to develop a participatory ecosystem where users can become creators. LINE will continue to move forward with its global platform as it strives to cement its position as an integral piece of the world's smartphone-based communication infrastructure.