It was just yesterday we covered an exclusive session on how KakaoTalk would enter Indonesian market next month, today we learns that LINE has already started its engine and collaborates with Indonesia’s largest mobile operator Telkomsel. As cited from Tech in Asia, LINE adds a new set of sticker picturing “Telkomsel Blob” character. The whole set can be downloaded for free. While it’s a collaboration with Telkomsel, the sticker can be found easily at iOS or Android device that using other networks.
A product of Naver Japan, LINE is a popular messaging platform in Japan but so much in Korea since KakaoTalk is much more popular there. Now, both parties are aiming at Indonesia since logically Indonesia is the third largest cellular subscribers in Asia, after China and India. In mobile realm, LINE has already available in iOS, Android and Windows Phone. However, the ability of downloading new sticker is still yet to be found on Windows Phone version. People also able to use LINE in desktop since there’s Windows and Mac version as well.
Take a look into detail, we can find that LINE has brought dozen of new sticker set, ranging from free to $1.99. While KakaoTalk has created more creative business plan — beyond messaging, LINE focus on bringing better experience on chatting. To be honest, people around me still find LINE more attractive than KakaoTalk, due to the sticker’s choices, but we will assess the situation by the end of the year when KakaoTalk implementing its massive plans in Indonesia.
We believe that Telkomsel is still preparing another business model with LINE. Other than sticker, there’s possibility that Telkomsel will offer special data package for LINE subscribers. Similar program has been introduced for WhatsApp.
The arrival of LINE in Indonesia (as business unit) means a messaging war in smartphone platform. While mig33 still enjoy its position in feature phone market, the competition in smartphone is actually heating up. WeChat, KakaoTalk and LINE are all taking their chance to dethrone WhatsApp as the new king of multiplatform messaging. BlackBerry Messenger, however, is having no contest on single platform messaging since BlackBerry is still the preferred choice of common middle class.
