'Line' Patriotic Consumption Fades... Weekly User Count Drops to 720,000

Slight Decrease in LINE Usage Time
User App Loyalty Remains Low

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The usage time of 'Line,' which surged immediately after the Line Yahoo incident, is showing a declining trend. Although the number of new installations once surpassed that of the national messenger KakaoTalk, interest is waning.

According to application (app) analysis firm Mobile Index on the 16th, the number of Android users of Line decreased from 745,240 in the third week of May (13?19) to 721,119 in the second week of this month (3?9).

Line's usage time also stagnated. The average time per user slightly dropped from 43.75 minutes between the end of last month and the beginning of this month to 42.78 minutes.

Line received rapid attention as the Line Yahoo incident intensified in early last month. Line installations increased significantly as a form of 'patriotic consumption.' From the 6th to the 12th of last month, new installations reached 71,220, surpassing KakaoTalk for the first time in 1 year and 5 months since November 2022. As a result, it ranked first in new installations in the messenger, call, and video call categories of social networking services (SNS).

However, as the Line Yahoo incident prolonged, interest has declined. Line users' app usage loyalty is also considered low. According to data from the mobile big data company IGAWorks, among those who installed Line on Android last month, 64.9% had no usage history. The proportion of users who used the app less than 3 hours per month was 28.1%. Only 2.4% of users used Line for more than 9.8 hours in a month.

Some argue that the higher the interest in Line operated by Line Yahoo, the more it could benefit Naver. If the frequency of Line usage in Korea is high, Naver could demand a higher management premium during the Line Yahoo shareholding negotiations between Naver and SoftBank.

An industry insider said, "Since messengers involve exchanging messages with others, it is difficult to suddenly increase usage," but added, "If Line's indicators improve even slightly during the shareholding negotiations between Naver and SoftBank, it could be used as leverage to demand a management premium."