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LINE 10th Anniversary

Communicate the World's Information to Users, Connecting People and Information

LINE celebrates its 10th anniversary on June 23, 2021. In this series of interviews, we sat down with twelve Global LINERs and asked them to look back on the last ten years since LINE was established. They also shared their visions for the next ten years, including how they wanted to change society.

In this article, we introduce three LINERs who communicate the world's information to users, connecting people and information.

A designer who conveys emotions through charming characters

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  • Kang Byung Mok(Mogi)
  • Mogi is part of the LINE Plus Creative team. After working as an illustrator at NAVER Japan and as a freelance illustrator, he joined LINE Plus in 2013. He develops new LINE FRIENDS characters and creates stickers and content. He was the creator of BROWN and CONY. Recently, he has been enjoying cooking as work from home continues. His dream is to compile his artworks (created in between work and looking after his children) into a book and gifting it to his close friends and team members.

ーーLINE was established ten years ago from around this time on June 23, 2011. What were you doing at that point in your life?

Mogi

Ten years ago, I was working as a freelance illustrator in Korea. One day, James--the current LINE FRIENDS CEO who was my superior at my previous job--asked me to design stickers for the LINE app, which was a new feature at that time. I then created the current original characters of LINE FRIENDS--BROWN & FRIENDS. Thinking back, James may have asked me to do the design because he knew that I loved drawing characters that would appear in funny comics (laughs).

At the time, people mainly used emojis on the LINE app, but I wanted to create characters that were bigger and showed various expressions so that users can convey their feelings easier. I first designed MOON, which is a human-like character, and then BROWN and CONY because I thought it might be interesting to have friendly animal characters. They were then given their own names and personalities, and many people started using the stickers. I was so happy.

After that, LINE started to offer a service where anyone was able to make and sell their own stickers, which led to the debut of numerous creators, including top creators. As someone who has been creating artworks for a long time, I know how hard it is to get your work published, so I'm deeply moved to see LINE offer opportunities to creators.

LINE has many users, so the platform is a very good environment for creators to debut as they can quickly receive feedback about their work. In this way, LINE had a new and positive effect on the design industry.

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Mogi 10yeas ago, when he was working at NAVER Japan.

ーーWhat do you think are LINE's strengths and what issues do you think it still needs to tackle?

Mogi

One of LINE's strengths is the existence of its characters like BROWN and CONY, which are loved by users around the world. The characters have created a new form of communication where they help users convey emotions that are hard to express using words. LINE stickers have become an essential part of the app; without it, messages feel somewhat awkward and dry.

Also, stickers have become so much more diverse with some of them being sold in collaboration with global artists. For example, BT21--a group of characters created jointly by LINE FRIENDS and BTS--are globally popular among the younger generation. BTS members proactively use BT21 on their social media accounts as well. That's why I believe LINE has drastically changed the character industry.

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As I've said, LINE's stickers had a positive influence on design and character industries, but our challenge now is to strengthen our content so that users can find LINE FRIENDS characters much more appealing. "What will the characters be doing in their daily lives?" "What sort of expressions will they show if they were here, right in front of us?"--these are the type of questions I ask myself every day so that I can make our characters more adorable.

Also, LINE FRIENDS characters will not just stay as illustrations. They'll become increasingly active in a wider variety of digital content like games, music, and videos. I want to take on new challenges so that LINE FRIENDS characters can offer WOW to users in line with social changes and trends.

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ーーWhat do you want to achieve next at LINE?

Mogi

I want to keep creating characters that are not just cute but are full of energy and charm. Despite fierce competition in the character industry, LINE FRIENDS was able to lead the trend because each LINER persistently tried to produce the best quality work, focusing even on minor details. However, if we still want our characters to be more popular than others, we can't be satisfied with the status quo.

We have to keep creating better work with "perfect details" in mind. Going forward in the next ten years, I'll keep exploring new ways to delight users through continuous trial and error.

Enriching daily life: communicating the possibilities of LINE to users

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  • Ramdhan Bambang(Bams)
  • Bams is part of LINE Indonesia's PR & Marketing team. Born in Bandung, Indonesia, he majored in English Literature and Communication Studies at Padjadjaran University. After graduating, he worked as a tech journalist for Gadget+ Magazine and Macworld Indonesia. He then moved on to Maverick Indonesia as a PR consultant, providing consulting services to big tech companies before joining LINE Indonesia in 2018. At present, he handles all aspects of public relations activities for LINE Indonesia and also helps the Marketing team in content planning and operations for the company's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, delivering helpful information for day-to-day living to over 400,000 followers. He is fluent in Indonesian, English, and Sundanese, and is currently studying Thai.

ーーWhat were you doing 10 yeas ago?

Bams

Ten years ago, I'd graduated university and started working as an editor. I had to handle many articles at once and was always grappling with deadlines. At that time, we were limited to using email when wanting to share data with other colleagues. When we wanted to communicate with each other and work at the same time, we had to use two devices: a mobile phone and a laptop. I always wished that there was a way we could work more efficiently. Now there are so many services and devices that make it simpler to connect with each other in both our working and private lives. Everything is easier now.

There is one memory in particular that I still have. Around 2013, when I was working as a journalist for Gadget+ Magazine--one of Indonesia's biggest tech magazines--I happened to be put in charge of covering LINE over an ongoing series of articles. Since I wrote it for print media, I unfortunately don't have any copies of it anymore. But basically, I covered what LINE was, what features it offered, tips and tricks, and how to use it, etc. I also wrote articles about WEBTOON and a 2016 event held by LINE Indonesia. To be honest, before I took on that job, I barely knew what LINE was but that opened the way to me falling in love with the app. And now I'm working at LINE itself (laughs).

Here at LINE Indonesia, I'm in charge of creating content for our social media. Every day, we work together with members from BX and many other teams to determine the tone of posts and what content to create so that we can intuitively communicate LINE's brand to users.

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Bams 10 years ago.At a sightseeing spot called Tevin Keraton in Bandung, Indonesia.

ーーWhat do you think are LINE's strengths and what issues do you think it still needs to tackle?

Bams

What's amazing about LINE is not only its functional value in letting users send messages and get information, but also the "emotional" value it provides. For example, when I've finished a tiring day of work, I'll open LINE and catch up with my friends and talk about things outside of work. So even though LINE is a digital tool, its ability to help users feel at ease and calm is what makes it special.

LINE also understands its users. In Indonesia, it provides localized features--recently, we launched an avatar feature for Ramadan (editor's note: the month of fasting in the Islamic calendar, in which able-bodied Muslims will fast from dawn to sunset) that lets users make avatars dressed in Islamic clothing. It was really well received.

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As for challenges that LINE faces, I think that we should aim to go beyond the messenger app and deliver different features and services to as many users as possible. Though users can do many different things on LINE, it's still a relatively new service in Indonesia that has a lot of stiff competition. Many here are also not familiar with LINE as a super app and aren't accustomed to using it.

That's why I think that if we successfully meet user needs, we can communicate the idea to users that they can do anything and everything on LINE. As a result, LINE could become more enmeshed in their day-to-day lives. I think that's the task we're faced with now.

ーーWhat do you want to achieve next at LINE?

Bams

Through our social media channels, we're sending out content on Ramadan, entertainment, finance and anything else that could be useful for Indonesians' everyday lives. Next up, I'd like to build on that with content that helps our users know more about LINE--for example, information on LINE's contributions to society. I also want to deliver information that will make users feel hopeful about LINE's future, such as upcoming projects and content that demonstrates how LINE is a super app that can help enrich their lives.

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The working environment here is very dynamic. There are countless opportunities to work with people from different backgrounds and hear their perspectives. Working with so many other talented people also gives me the chance to learn new things every day, and drives my passion to produce the best outcomes I can. Over the next ten years, I want to hold onto this passion and continue delivering content that users will love.

Providing accurate information to users in the current era

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  • Huang Jing-Ya(Kara)
  • Kara is a member of the LINE Taiwan Content Planning team. She joined LINE Taiwan in 2018 after obtaining a master's degree in information systems. As a planner, Kara currently conducts planning for LINE Stickers and LINE Fact Checker. She likes to read books and exercise, such as hiking and cycling.

ーーWhat were you doing 10 yeas ago?

Kara

Ten years ago, I was still a high school student and was studying for university entrance exams. Online community services were already quite mature at that time; I remember reading blog posts written by my friends and posting my feelings on social media. I also liked to play online role-playing games when I was not studying.

It's hard to believe that ten years ago, less than 40% of people in Taiwan had smartphones and the word "chatbot" didn't exist. Also, only a few smartphone games were available, and we had to call our friends to know where they were. However, we can now locate our friends and find out what they're doing through content they share on social media and mapping apps. It's amazing how information technology has evolved in the past ten years.

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Kara 10 year ago when she was a high school student, with her friends at school trip.

ーーWhat do you think are LINE's strengths and what issues do you think it still needs to tackle?

Kara

One of LINE's strengths is that it can enrich users' lives with just the one app. Almost everyone in Taiwan has a LINE account, and they use the app for various things, like communicating with family and friends, reading the news, gathering information about a place they want to go to, and paying with coupons.

Because we currently have such a large user base and are required to take on more social responsibility, we have to make sure that users can safely use the app. I believe that LINE Fact Checker plays an important role in providing accurate information to users and that it needs to be further improved. Our goal is not just enabling users to fact-check information. Our current goal is to update the service's features with AI technology so that it can detect patterns of variation in information and spam messages. This way, fake news can be blocked without any input from users.

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ーーWhat do you want to achieve next at LINE?

Kara

Users' demand for accurate information will continue to grow. According to a recent analysis report, users have significantly improved their awareness of fake news compared to when LINE Fact Checker was launched (37% of people will do fact-checking in 2019 vs. 41% in 2021, an increase of 4%).

Due to the pandemic, the topics that interest users the most are "lifestyle" and "health." We are expected to provide users with accurate and necessary information on these topics in a simple way, especially because they are important subjects that are a matter of life or death.

To this end, we have recently collaborated with other platforms and made it possible for them to inform users to use LINE Fact Checker if they wanted to verify information, among other initiatives. Making the LINE Fact Checker the mainstream method of fact-checking is not an easy task that I can achieve by myself.

However, I'm able to focus on creating products for our users as LINE has excellent engineering and support teams that provide prompt, high quality output. Such people are the driving force that keeps me moving forward. I'm excited to see what the next ten years will bring. Go Go Go!

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*What is LINE Fact Checker?

LINE Fact Checker is a LINE CSR official account service that is freely offered to users in Taiwan to check suspicious disinformation immediately, and it was launched in July of 2019 with the aim of suppressing Taiwan's severe infodemic (unverified information and fake news that causes anxiety and social chaos). It also contributed to preventing the spread of corona-related disinformation in connection with IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) certificated fact-checking NGO and Executive Yuan-the highest executive branch of the ROC government, headed by the premier.

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The LINE 10th Anniversary Project Team

To celebrate LINE’s tenth anniversary on June 23, 2021, we have written articles about LINERs from around the world. LINE will continue to boldly take up challenges no one else can do.