Line is turning Creators Market stickers into real-world merchandise

If you’re a heavy Line user, chances are you’ve downloaded at least one sticker set from the blockbuster Japanese messaging app’s Creators Market. Launched in May 2014, the Creators Market allows anyone to turn their drawings into Line stickers – and get paid for them. The stickers have been a huge success, with Line today revealing that there are now 170,000 sets available for purchase – up from 30,000 as of late last year. That’s a lot of goofy, often painfully Japanese characters up for grabs.

Today the company announced that it’s bringing original merchandise, featuring characters from 19 popular Creators Market sticker sets, to 93 brick-and-mortar stores across Japan. The Creators Market pop-up shops will offer 17 kinds of products – from iPhone cases and pens, to T-shirts and real stickers. The goods will be sold exclusively at Loft stores, a ubiquitous national chain that sells stationery and everyday items.

Line’s Creators Market pop-up shops will open from September 30. The company expects the shops to remain for about two months, and the merchandise will change over the course of the event. Line already sells merchandise featuring Brown, Cony, and its other in-house characters at the Line Friends Stores in Tokyo and Sendai.

A Line spokesperson tells Tech in Asia that the percentage each creator will receive from merchandise sales is private. Within the app, Line splits sticker sale revenue 50/50 with creators, after Apple or Google take their 30 percent cut for in-app purchases (there’s no cut if users purchase through Line Store). So we’re guessing that creators’ commissions will be in the ballpark of 35 percent. Sets of 40 stickers sell for JPY 100 (US$0.83), and pop-up shop goods range from JPY 300 (US$2.50) for a pen to JPY 2,900 (US$24) for a T-shirt.

Last November, Line announced that it had sold US$30.5 million worth of Creators Market stickers – with the top 10 sticker sets earning an average of US$313,000 each in the initial six month period after launch. While the company hasn’t revealed the latest official sales number, it appears that interest in original, user-made sticker sets is increasing rapidly.

Now run off and start sketching your own!