Diffusing a Korean messenger app to foreign territory
https://en.lab.appa.pe/2019-11/how-did-line-become-the-go-to-messaging-app-in-japan.html
In class we learned about the social contagion of social networks. Professor Tardos mentioned a Hungarian social networking service which stayed rooted within the borders of Hungary and failed to go global. Some services successfully spread their wings while others vanish without a trace. While learning about diffusion of innovations and viral marketing, we learned that when introducing a new product, firms think hard about how to market it, and who to market it to. The position of the app within the social network affects whether the product will successfully spread or fade away.
This particular phenomenon of how certain apps like Facebook or Instagram go global while other apps like Kakaotalk fail to step outside the Korean peninsula made me wonder about Line, a Korean-developed app wildly popular outside of its home country.
Line has supposedly become Thailand’s main messenger app through viral global marketing and is now focusing on shifting their place within the Thai social network to become a staple of daily life. In 2016, they introduced the “Line Man” service, which is basically Facebook messenger and Uber Eats combined in one—if someone orders food through Line, a Lineman in an adorable green uniform will come running to the user with the food they ordered. This method used by Line to secure their position within a foreign environment is an iteration of traditional methods used by Samsung and Hyundai when they had tried to integrate themselves into foreign countries 10-20 years ago.
Unlike KakaoTalk, which is Korea’s number one messenger app, Line has succeeded in growing overseas. Line’s monthly average users in 2019 were 83 million in Japan, 21 million in. Taiwan, 45 million in Thailand, and 15 million in Indonesia. The app is ranked as the number one messenger app in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, and is boosting their presence in the United States and Spain.
Let’s focus more on the Thai market and interpret how Line’s social position has become so rooted in a foreign society. Line has already become a substantial business platform for local Thai companies. More than 250 companies are heavily dependent on advertising their brand by striking deals with Line. A recent example is Dunkin Donuts distributing 1+1 donut deals over Line, which generated more than $500,000 of pure profit for the brand.
Moreover, over 100,000 fresh-faced Thai college graduates are dreaming of starting their own businesses with the help of Line’s “Creators Market” where they can sell creative graphics and character/icons to customers.
Adding onto the examples mentioned above, Line strictly fixates on “locality” when planning out new services to add to their app. The Lineman service(which was obviously planned and executed by Line Thai), was created independently by the Thai branch, based upon the fact that the Thai enjoy street food but lack an active delivery system. Line plans to expand the services to countries lacking delivery systems to become a crucial component of their own social network as well.
Through the example mentioned above, we have studied how Line has successfully diffused itself over foreign ground by fixating on local needs and re-establishing its position to serve as a “stable business launchpad,” “delivery service app which thousands of restaurants and deliverymen depend on for a living,” and “an irreplaceable advertisement billboard.”
The spread of this app is directly correlated to the diffusion model we learned in class. The diffusion model stands to represent that when a certain number of people around a user adopt the new technology, the user will eventually be locked into it as well. This leads to the whole network within a certain group fully adapting to the technology. Line has taken ahold of this social structure and made itself a necessity for restaurant owners, delivery people searching for a new part-time job, and college students wanting to jump into business. These people are sure to spread the app around to people that aren’t a part of their communities- which has lead to 80% of Thai people carrying the app on their smartphones.