Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa gives a rare look into the messaging app’s strategy

Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa reveals the company’s upcoming moves.

Line Corp CEO Takeshi Idezawa was a tad late to get on stage today at Tech in Asia Singapore 2016. Takeshi apologized in a fury of stamps projected for the audience to enjoy in a light-hearted opening.

Being late also didn’t stop Takeshi from showing off his new “Brown University” T-shirt – a reference to Line’s cute bear character, Brown, not the US university – before settling down to tell us all about how the messaging app became the world’s highest earning app publisher and its next moves for tackling markets outside of Asia.

Takeshi and his new t-shirt at Tech in Asia Singapore.

During the hour-long session Takeshi revealed some of the thinking behind Line’s new strategies and gave the audience a little insight into how things are run at the company.

Apps without organic growth don’t have value.

Takeshi cites localization and staying deeply focused on the user as being key success factors for Line. Before launching a new service, Takeshi says they do extensive research on local trends and culture on the ground.

While Takeshi mentioned that the essence of services offered in other markets such as news or video are the same, the details and the “how” the services will offered are different. For example, Line is focusing on on-demand video in Thailand, but in Japan, they are focusing on live streaming.

Although Line’s chat app growth has been stagnant the past few months, it is still the top grossing publisher on the app store.

Killing off things that don’t work

Line is not afraid to shut down lagging services. Even Line Mall which was the second most popular flea app was shut down in Japan because it didn’t achieve the projected active user number. “Performance and sales were there but it didn’t hit our KPIs,” explains Takeshi.

At the idea stage, teams are given freedom and unlimited time to explore, but once a plan is implemented Line follows a strict deadline and monitors growth closely. The team looks for users who are happy, who spread the service, and use it a lot. Organic growth is very important – “apps without organic growth don’t have value,” says Takeshi.

Line sees its messaging app as a hub, or “portal” for related services. Takeshi hinted that they are currently working on a single application so users will not have to switch apps to game, call a taxi, buy things, or do other Line services.

This move is based off evidence and user feedback. Takeshi says, “70 to 80 percent of users spend their time in applications not the browser.” He believes that a single app will be a better experience for not only users but also make it easier for Line to push people to other services and lower acquisition costs for Line and those using its platform.

New ways of grabbing users