Line, the Japanese mobile messaging company, launched a light version of its app for Android devices in emerging markets to help gain more users in emerging markets with cheaper devices and limited internet connection since most of its success are from users located in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, with over 205 million active monthly users.
Line said the bloated version of its app is just a 1MB download and will initially available be in eleven countries — Algeria, Cambodia, Colombia, Egypt, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Korea, and Vietnam but sad part is, it won’t have the video or audio calling features and also won’t have its ‘Timeline’ social feed but the company also said nee features will be added in the future.
Facebook tried this approach too with its Facebook app for emerging markets, which is called Facebook Lite, and is also available to android devices which was launched in June… Guess Line is following Facebook’s steps on getting into the emerging markets.
That said, the company needs to know that there are other big players in this region, such as, BBM, Messenger, WhatsApp and the others that have managed to gain their success in these regions but we’d have to see how far this watered-down Line Lite app will differentiate itself from other services.
