LINE Corpn plans more tie-ups with Bollywood for emoticons, stickers

Japan’s messaging and voice calling app or instant messaging service (IM) LINE Corporation is banking on emoticons and smileys (called stickers) of Bollywood movie characters to woo Indian smartphone users.

According to Damandeep Singh Soni, India Head of Business Development, LINE Corp, at least 10 such tie-ups have so far been planned and more are being explored in the coming days.

The messaging app has recently tied up with the upcoming Saif Ali Khan-Riteish Deshmukh starrer “Humshakals” to introduce stickers. Previous initiatives in India include tie-ups with “Krishh 3” and “Dhoom 3” and a set of emoticons featuring cricketers.

Apart from movie tie-ups and cricketer emoticons, it also has a host of in-house cartoon characters.

According to Cyber Media Research, nearly 14.5 million smartphones were shipped to India in the first three months (Jan-March) of 2014, an over 200 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Interestingly, while stickers and emoticons are mostly offered as a paid service in developed nations like Japan, in India most stickers come for free.

“At present, we are not actively selling stickers in India. The focus is to upgrade people from basic chatting apps to LINE,” Soni told Business Line .

LINE, which entered the Indian market almost a year ago, has 18 million users and competes with the likes of WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat, Hike, Nimbuzz and others.

The target is to scale up to 50 million users “soon”. It is also partnering with a host of e-tailers and coupon sites such as Jabong, eBay and Groupon to offer daily deals to LINE subscribers and users. Apart from deals, special discount coupons are also being offered.

It is also in talks with ticket booking site BookMyShow.

“This is a win-win situation for both of us. While the e-commerce platforms witness higher traffic, LINE users benefit from discounts,” he added.

As a part of its India focus, the messaging app is looking at exclusive tie-ups with various telecom operators for data-packs.

Such dedicated offerings are on in countries like Singapore and Indonesia but are yet to be introduced here.