LINE Turning Itself into Leading Smart Portal in Thailand

South Korean mobile messenger service provider LINE, a subsidiary of Naver, had a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on May 3 and said that it would continue to provide useful and innovative daily-living services as a leading smart portal in Thailand.

At present, its LINE messenger is enjoying huge popularity in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia. It was put into service in Thailand four years ago and the number of its users there has increased to approximately 33 million, almost half of the population of the country and 85% of Thai smartphone users. “Whatsapp and Blackberry used to be the two most widespread messengers in Thailand in the past but the LINE has attracted more users for two years,” said LINE Thailand managing director Ariya Banomyong, continuing, “We will add more features other than chatting so even more people can find it appealing.”

According to local market research firms, the LINE was second only to Facebook in Thailand in last year’s brand rankings. They were followed by YouTube, Google, iPhone, etc. LINE is currently engaged in businesses such as messenger service, ad, O2O, entertainment and game. Its advertising business, in particular, is enjoying more popularity than Facebook and YouTube with more than 250 brands and companies like e-commerce Lazada using official LINE accounts.

LINE is trying to find new business opportunities with local startups, too. “In the future, services created by LINE Thailand will be able to be exported to the other countries including South Korea and Japan, and we will help Thai startups to find opportunities in cooperation with us,” the managing director added.