Last week, the number of Line installations reached 61,640, outpacing the country's dominant KakaoTalk (56,771) for the third consecutive week, according to data released by mobile big data company IGA Works. Line topped the chart in the category of social media messenger, voice call and video call.
Launched in June 2011 by Naver, Line has grown to reach 96 million monthly active users (MAU) in Japan alone and 200 million users across Asia, including Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia. In Korea, however, it has trailed behind KakaoTalk.
During the fourth week of April, Line surpassed KakaoTalk in terms of new downloads for the first time since mid-November 2022. The trend reversed the following week but Line began to outnumber its rival again in the first week of May.
The spike came amid growing concerns that Line might fall under Japanese control. After a significant data breach at Line in late 2023, Japanese authorities issued administrative guidance, directing LY Corp (LYC), the operator of the messaging app, to review its capital relationship with Naver. LYC is owned by A Holdings, a 50:50 joint venture between Naver and Softbank.
Korea's politicians and civic groups urged Japan not to take unfair measures. During a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul on Sunday, President Yoon Suk Yeol emphasized the importance of handling the incident carefully to prevent unnecessary tensions between the two nations.
Meanwhile, KakaoTalk encountered a series of disruptions from mid-May, causing significant inconvenience to users.
On May 13, some KakaoTalk users experienced instability in sending and receiving messages and logging in on PC for about six minutes. Similar issues occurred on May 20 and 21.
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