[Japan] LINE Manga Celebrates its 6th Anniversary—Announces Latest Usage Data and New Service Message "A New Page"

2019.05.10 Entertainment Services

● 89% of LINE Manga readers use the Free Series

● 7.8 users read new works on LINE Manga every second

 

TOKYO – April 9, 2018 – LINE Digital Frontier Corporation celebrates the 6th year of its digital comic service, LINE Manga (https://manga.line.me/) and announces its latest achievements and usage data.

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LINE Manga, available on the LINE messaging app or as a dedicated app, is a digital comic service that offers users an easy and convenient way to read manga and novels on their smartphones. Since its launch in April 2013, LINE Manga offers over 380,000 titles from more than 250 publishers and labels on its digital comic store. Approximately 2,000 works are also made available as a Free Series, with one free episode made available every 23 hours. 

In July 2015, original titles overseen by the LINE Manga Editorial Team were launched on the platform. These titles are published by its original label, LINE Comics, and sold in book and ebook stores across Japan. The capital alliance with NAVER WEBTOON in August 2018 added full-color, smartphone-optimized, horizontal-scrolling WEBTOON titles to the LINE Manga lineup, offering approximately 200 Original LINE Manga works not available anywhere else.

Through these efforts, the LINE Manga app has been downloaded in Japan more than 23 million times as of April 2019, topping the smartphone manga app download rankings.*1 LINE Manga has seen robust growth since its launch six years ago—proven by a 413% increase in the number of tankobon (manga compilation volumes) annual sales on the digital comic store from 2014 to 2018.

*1 Source: App Annie

LINE Manga also offers a Free Series—an effort to expose more titles on LINE Manga by offering exclusive/priority titles from publishers such as Kodansha, KADOKAWA, and Takarajima—in addition to original titles available only on LINE Manga. Up until now, a total of 2,900 titles have been published as a Free Series.  
Data reveals that 89% of all LINE Manga users read works from the Free Series, and 80% of these users are reading original works. This means that every second, 7.8 users are reading titles that they have never read before through the Free Series, showing that LINE Manga is a place for users to discover new manga works.

 

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New service message "A New Page" 
A user discovers a new work and becomes a fan.  
This simple statement embodies LINE Manga's mission to provide a place where readers can encounter and fully enjoy manga titles. By continuing this, LINE Manga aspires to provide a service that is valuable to both the readers and authors, and commits to taking on new challenges. 

 

With the new service message, "A New Page," LINE Manga endeavors to further cultivate and invigorate the Japanese manga market as it continues to move forward with various initiatives.


About LINE Manga App 
Supported devices: iPhone and Android
Language: Japanese
Supported region: Japan
Service launch: April 9, 2013
Cost: Free (offers in-app purchases)
Developer and operator: LINE Digital Frontier Corporation
Copyright: © LINE Corporation
App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/line-manga/id597088068 (Japanese only)
Google Play: http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.naver.linemanga.android (Japanese only)
Web-based edition: https://manga.line.me/ (Japanese only)
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/LINEmanga (Japanese only)
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LINEMANGA.official?fref=ts (Japanese only)
Official blog: http://manga-blog.line.me/ja/ (Japanese only)