Line Hunts Down Path As ‘Line Band’ App Surpasses 15 Million Downloads

Remember Line Band, the extended social network for users of the smash-hit messaging app Line? Today NHN Japan has revealed that Line Band has surpassed 15 million downloads, putting the app – which looks like a mix of Path and Facebook – on course to zoom past Path’s 10 million registered users.

Line Band launched last August in Japan, points out TheNextWeb team, and then appeared earlier this year in English. While there’s no word on active monthly users of Line Band, it clearly has the means to be massive thanks to Line’s total user-base of over 200 million registered users. It’s just a case of those being persuaded to download Line Band as a separate app and use that for extra functionality such as social groups and photo-sharing.

The Line Band app now supports nine languages with more to come. Mike Won, head of business development and global marketing at Line Band, explains:

We are now aiming to acquire more users from the global market by resolving the problems that may result from the differences in mobile environments across countries. We have been reviewing user feedback from each market to provide better experiences in using our app and will continue to support global users.

NHN Japan has built an empire of useful, gaming, and social apps around Line.

Path, billed as a private social network for close friends, has tried to make itself more fun recently, perhaps due to pressure from messaging apps like Line and WeChat, by adding large sticker-like emoticons clearly inspired by the Asia-made chat apps. Path’s third-largest market is Indonesia.

Line Band is available for iOS and Android.

(Source: TheNextWeb)