Mobile chat app Line wants to take over the world, but faces a long road ahead.

At Line’s annual event in Tokyo last August, leaders announced it would roll out channels for shopping, music, and video calls, first for the Japanese market and later to other countries. Openly proclaiming its blossoming from a messaging app to a platform with 240 million users globally, Line CEO Akira Morikawa said he hopes Line will become a “universal language.”

Satoshi Yajima, a lead representative for Line’s international marketing division, echoed these sentiments earlier this week at Digital Taipei 2013. He repeatedly stated Line hopes to grow “from a tool to a platform,” become an “entry point” for content, and “create a new smartphone ecosystem.”

Yajima then sketched out the company’s business plan for the foreseeable future: first, new features will be introduced in Japan, where Line has 47 million users (its largest userbase) and gets home team advantage. Any day now, these features will be introduced to Thailand, where Line has 18 million users, and Taiwan, with 17 million users (and the highest penetration rate of all markets).

Following the second pilot phase in Asia strongholds, the app updates will reach other markets — perhaps China, India, Spain, or Latin America — with an eye towards measured trial and error.

To further Line’s ambitions to “serve as a communication infrastructure for billions of global smartphones,” the company will introduce news, e-books, and horoscopes in the near future.

In theory, Line’s prospects look strong

Of all the messaging apps to emerge in the smartphone era (Kakao Talk, WhatsApp, WeChat, and countless others), on the surface, Line seems best poised to see highest global adoption rates, and by extension, the healthiest revenues.

Unlike KakaoTalk, it’s seen significant market penetration in countries outside of its origin (Taiwan and Thailand, namely). Unlike WeChat, it’s not burdened by Big Brother-esque traditions in Chinese social media. Unlike WhatsApp, it’s feature-rich (and free of charge).

And on top of all that, it’s well-branded, with a flagship set of characters that have entered the realm of pop culture. Americans might not be seeing Moon and Brown appear alongside their favorite Saturday morning cartoons any time soon, but successful merchandising has proven that its cuddly mascots have at least some lasting resonance beyond domestic borders.

Publicly shared numbers depict Line as experiencing strong growth. 80 percent of its registered users are outside Japan. Every hour, it gains 63,000 new users. In Q2 2013 the company earned 9.77 billion yen (over $99 million) in Q2 2013, up 66 percent annually (all from startup dating). The company has even flirted with notions of an IPO.

Mr. Kang Hyunbin, head of business office at Line Plus Corp

These developments could indicate that Line is at an exciting crossroads, showing a platform on the verge of “going global.” However, when one considers Line’s challenges when expanding, this exciting crossroads could in fact be a sign of the brand’s identity crisis.

Line wants to stand out from the pack by being everything to everyone

Line currently utilizes a hybrid business model to make money — one that serves both businesses and consumers, and earns revenues from both ends. In order to earn revenues from businesses, however, the eyeballs of the masses are a necessary precedent.

Show me the MAUs

Line’s secret weapon