Japan Line App Targeting 500 million users in 2014

Line is aiming to reach half a billion registered users next year and the US is sure to be a key component in reaching that ambitious goal.

“We’re just getting started in the US,” she says,”and are actively doing deals to secure good content. The US market is already mature for technology, the ratio of games and active smartphone users is high.”

All of these factors play to Line’s advantage but, as I recently wrote, one of the big questions is about culture: will US smartphone owners trade a simple messaging experience like that of WhatsApp for a complicated but feature-packed one such as that offered by Line?

There’s certainly room to accommodate more than one player in the market, and Line will look to its celebrity users — which include Beatles singer Paul McCartney, who has over 7 million Line followers — and its games platform — Line’s 39 games have surpassed 200 million cumulative downloads — to stand out from the rest and offer a compelling experience.

As it stands, the Line service is used in 230 countries worldwide. The company says it is ranked as the top free app in 60 of them.