App Installations Increase Following Reports of Japanese Government Pressure
As news emerged that the Japanese government pressured Naver to sell its stake in Line, a movement to newly install the Line app has appeared domestically in response.
Number of New Line App Installations Hits Highest in 9 Months... Responding to Japanese Government's Actions with an 'App Usage Campaign'?
On the 14th, Mobile Index revealed that the number of new Line app installations during the first week of this month (April 29 to May 5) was 58,346. This is the highest figure in about nine months since the second week of August last year (August 7?13), which recorded 59,278 installations. The monthly new installations also reached 239,663 last month alone. This is the highest number so far this year, representing an increase of 3.4% and 16.1% compared to March and February, respectively.
Industry insiders interpret this as a reflection of heightened public interest in Line following reports that Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued administrative guidance to Line Yahoo to "reconsider its capital relationship with Naver." In fact, after the ministry issued a second administrative guidance on April 16, the number of new installations increased. Compared to the third week of last month (April 15?21), there was a 5.3% rise. This is why it is interpreted that the pressure to sell Line shares is being met with an 'app usage campaign.'
The growing popularity of Line was also confirmed on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. In the social networking category of the Apple App Store, Line ranked higher than KakaoTalk and Telegram, and on the Google Play Store, it ranked third after KakaoTalk and Snapchat. Reviews of the Line app include supportive messages such as "Line is clearly a Korean company" and "Don't hand it over to Japan." Because of this, as the perception that "Messenger Line is Japanese" is widespread in Japan, there is also an interpretation that a public opinion campaign is being waged in Korea.
However, few see the increase in Line installations as a long-term trend. This is because KakaoTalk's market dominance is overwhelmingly high domestically. In fact, when a service outage occurred due to a fire at the SK C&C data center in October 2022, users sought Line as an alternative to KakaoTalk, but the substitution effect was short-lived.
Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Requests Reconsideration of Line Yahoo's Capital Relationship... Calls for "Active Response from Our Government" Grow
Earlier, on April 16, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications requested Line Yahoo to reconsider its capital relationship with Naver as part of administrative guidance. This followed the confirmation that about 510,000 Line users' personal information was leaked due to a hacking incident on the Naver Cloud server, which had been entrusted with personal data last November. It was pointed out that Line Yahoo excessively depended on Naver, which was entrusted with system operations, and that security measures were insufficient.
However, it is unusual for a government to intervene and pressure a private company to adjust its ownership structure under the pretext of personal information leakage. Because of this, criticism arose that the Japanese government might be attempting to seize a Korean corporate platform, and opposition parties have called for a more active response from the government. The Naver labor union also expressed opposition to the sale of shares, stating that "protecting Line affiliates and the technology and know-how they have accumulated is a top priority."
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