But fun features such as games, stickers and various third-party apps that allow users to do anything from doodling to shooting stylised photos make it a more compelling offering in the face of competition from Snapchat and others.
Over the last few years, messaging apps have become ecosystems in themselves, offering chat, voice and video calling, games, stickers, music, and more.
Line offers free messaging and social networking services on its platform, focusing on the youth market with games, stickers and kawaii mascots also part of its platform — the latter now have their own cartoon show (called Line Town) in Japan.
In the nearer term, Line is focusing on adding advertising to its monetization mix, which is primarily composed of in-app purchases for games and sticker pack sales.
Line, for example – positioned as a "smartphone life platform" – offers numerous games and stickers.
Right now, most of Line's games and stickers are steeped in Asian pop culture and feature manga-style characters.
"The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft" came out in 2014, and even the slightest and most ephemeral of his writings remain in print — to say nothing of the crawling chaos of Lovecraftian fiction, films, video games, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and tea cozies in the shape of Lovecraft's best-known creation, the octopus-headed Cthulhu.
It needs large numbers of users to funnel into its games and stickers shop business model.
In addition, this music service is part of Line's push to diversify its revenue beyond games and stickers, and also to provide new services.
It grossed $1 billion in sales in 2015, which included revenue from official accounts for companies, in-app purchases within its games and stickers.
