Japanese messaging app Line has just reported that new users in Hong Kong have been doubling each day for the past week since January 29.
The app, which is the dominant messenger of choice in Japan, launched its Chinese version on December 12, and looks like it’s riding a huge wave of momentum in Asia, ranking first on the free app category in over 40 countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand.
Japanese LINE application has been seeing some major success in Hong Kong, as the company who operates LINE, NHN, just announced that it had doubled its user count in Hong Kong every day last week after launching the application to Chinese users in December 12.
This sudden growth in the user base seems to be a side effect that was caused by annual fees on text messages being imposed on Hong Kong residents by some wireless service providers in the area. In LINE’s particular case, this was a very good change. Currrently, the app ranks first on the free app category in a number of areas, including Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and now Hong Kong.
This isn’t the first time the application has saw very fast growth. After only a year and a half of availability, the application passed the 100 million user mark in January; Japanese subscribers make up a third of its users.