Line Indonesia's Business Stories This Year

Line is one of the few foreign platforms, made in Japan-Korea, that has survived and has a large local base. Not just one or two applications, Line's range of applications gives its own color to the development of the technology industry in Indonesia, including the creative industry.

There are currently 185 million Monthly Active Users (MAU) Line globally, with 166 million of them located in Line's four largest markets, namely Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.

DailySocial trying to explore Line's business in Indonesia at this time, whether the pandemic condition has an impact on business performance, and what is the potential for further business development.

Business growth during the pandemic

From the side traffic During the pandemic, Line claims to experience good growth in the use of Group Video Calls and game Face Play, where users can play interactive games with their friends on Line while video call.

Line Indonesia also noted that users tend to be more active in socializing and more involved in the community, such as online discussions in the OpenChat feature..

"During this pandemic we didn't find any issues in the app Line. As a company that carries a mission Closing the Distance"We will continue to strive to provide various services and content that can bring users closer to a variety of communication services," said Strategy & New Business Director Line Indonesia Fanny Verona.

About revenue company, Fannny said the source of income Line Indonesia comes from business consumers (B2B) and retail (B2C). Revenue from the business segment is obtained from Messenger services, Official Accounts, Line Today, Line Timeline, and Line Points. Meanwhile, revenue from the retail segment comes from Stickers, Themes, and Emojis.

However, in the first 4 months of the pandemic, revenue from the business sector was impacted. most clients cut budgets to cancel their campaigns (especially events), as they need to adjust to the conditions and find a better way to run their campaigns during the pandemic.

"We usually get 200% revenue in Ramadan, but this year it unexpectedly fell below 100% of our target," said Sales Director Line Indonesia Anchali Kardia.

On the other hand, sticker products actually experienced an increase in the number of transactions during the pandemic. It is claimed that more and more users are using Line as an activity to establish online communication, especially young people. Line recorded an increase of up to 30% in March-July.

"We see the trend is returning to normal and our earnings are starting to follow the same trend as last year. Given the uncertainty of this condition, we can't really project year-end earnings. Usually, Q4 will be the second largest revenue contributor, after Ramadan, ' said Anchal.

Financial services

In October 2018, Line Corporation announced that its subsidiary Line Financial Asia acquired 20% of PT Bank KEB Hana Indonesia (PT Bank KEB Hana). This move is designed to support the expansion of Line's digital banking services in Indonesia.

“As planned, that Line will launch financial services as a focus new business in 2020 and 2021. So far we have released features Split Bills as an effort to create services associated with transactions," said Fanny.

Through collaboration with KEB Hana Bank, Line wants to create a product deposit/microcredit, remittance & payment services, implementing and improving the credit rating model through projects with local and international credit rating agencies, creating an identity verification (e-KYC) process optimized for local regulations, and other measures.

Line has also updated the appearance of the More Tab to be more transaction-centric withand focuses the display on services that are financial or transactional, such as displaying e-commerce products in collaboration with Blibli.

"These things are done in an effort so that users become familiar with experience this is before us fully launched next year. Plan on first quarter of 2021 Later we will release several new financial features and services to complement Split Bill and Wallet Tab," said Fanny.

Other product information

Line also provides the latest information on the development of several other products. For Line Stickers, they have now opened partnerships with GoPay and OVO for sticker purchases. Line Stickers, through the Line Creators Market, has more than 200 thousand registered creators and more than 75 thousand stickers in Indonesia as of early October 2020.

"We have also launched Line Siaga which is a new initiative to provide users with the latest information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. LINE Siaga can be accessed through official accounts and website, said Fanny.

To improve the user experience, Line has also released several new products. The first is Line Meeting, a group video call of up to 500 people, which allows users to access the service via a URL, both on smartphones and desktops.

There is also a Line Avatar that allows users to set and create as profile photos or share them in chat rooms.

Regarding the current competition between similar platforms, Fanny said that every technology company in every country has their own market and target. Line has a goal to provide a variety of services for its users in the countries where it operates, including in Indonesia.

Development of Line Webtoon

As one of the sister companies Line, Webtoon claims to experience positive growth since presence them in 2015. To DailySocial, Line Webtoon Indonesia Lead Ghina Fianny said, as a content service provider, Webtoon has a commitment to become a platform that is in general demand.

"While it is important to create content that is popular and generally liked, we also have some content that is uniquely themed and rich in elements and ideas that are very relatable. For the most popular genres recorded, the romance genre is the choice of most users," said Ghina.

One of the efforts made by Webtoon to reach more users is through direct activities and promotions. They see users in Indonesia love direct interaction, engaging and sharing their stories.

"In May, we asked our readers to submit their love story [which] generated more than 52 thousand stories. Together with the creators, we selected the 30 most interesting stories and turned them into a comic series containing 30 episodes," said Ghina.

The webtoon currently has 67 million MAUs globally. In Indonesia alone, there are 7,5 million MAU or second place after the United States.

"We see that there is still room for growth in Indonesia. Not only in terms of the population, but also by seeing that young Indonesians are very active in enjoying digital entertainment and also react positively to interesting new things," said Ghina.

Overall, currently Line Webtoon has released around 364 titles, with 130 of them being local titles. There are currently 23 thousand registered creators in Indonesia and have published their work through the platform user-generated content Canvas Webtoons.

"For the writers we contract and currently publish their stories under Webtoon Original, we have more than 130 authors and 65 Indonesian titles still pending. ongoing status until now," said Gina.

Ghina revealed, Webtoon sees the rise of local creators as a good thing to grow Indonesia's creative ecosystem.

“Finding and incubating local content takes time and Yago's defensive effort which is more than publishing a translated webtoon. However, learning from experience has become the preferred platform for readers in Indonesia to long term, it becomes important to produce local content that can be accepted by readers in Indonesia. In the future, we will focus on Webtoon Canvas, fostering novice creators through competitions and programs that we will launch," said Ghina.