NHN Japan’s Line Chat App Passes 100 Million Users

at Line HQ, just before the milestone was reached

As we mentioned in our post yesterday, NHN Japan’s Line application has been slowly creeping up on the impressive milestone of 100 million users recently. And it appears as though the company has just broken through, as its user counter (which it set up a few days ago to mark the occasion) has just rolled over.

Over on the Line Facebook page, they’ve been sharing pictures of what looks to be a big soiree (see above) over at Line headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo. Lime Line green balloons are decorating the place, and a big projection of the user count is featured on a wall. the company also has a commemorative video which you can see below. Some of the testimonials come across as a super scripted, but it’s still sort of neat.

Yesterday, we took a look at the major players in the mobile messaging wars, and Line ranks right up there with WeChat (300 million) and Kakao Talk (72 million) as the major players in Asia. But I expect their reach will begin to solidify in western markets this year too.

I can’t help but wonder if there is a clash with Facebook on the horizon, as the social giant begins to roll out free voice calls, which have been a major selling point for the afore mentioned chat apps. If Facebook can get its mobile act together, its offerings might begin to overlap significantly with many of these chat apps.