The Nation reports that ICT Minister Pornchai Rujiprapa told a press conference that the government “can monitor all the nearly 40 million Line messages sent by people in Thailand each day.”
A Line spokesperson denied the validity of the original report and told TechCrunch that it does not provide user information to Thailand’s government.
The minister’s claim is quite the revelation in Thailand, which is one of handful of markets in Asia where mobile messaging apps are bigger than Facebook. Line claims more than 30 million registered users in Thailand, and that could mean that it has more signups than Facebook.
If the Thai government is monitoring Line, it looks like it is complementing its ongoing efforts to block content deemed to be illegal on a range of social networks.
Minister Pornchai revealed that any users who come across messages that violate Thailand’s strict lèse-majesté laws (which protect against defamation of the monarchy) should contact authorities who can “trace where the messages originally come from.”
Past arrests under lese majeste have related the sending of SMS, Facebook messages, internet forums and websites, and perhaps Line will soon be a part of that. But there is also a new undercurrent of political activism that Thai authorities may be keen to combat.
Thailand’s army chief (now Prime Minister) took power from the elected government via a military coup in May this year. The new administration has faced a number of protests, which recently included students who borrowed the three finger salute of defiance from the Hunger Games movie franchise.
The junta government has threated to censor various websites where users were critical of it, and there was even a temporary blocking of Facebook. Officials tried to arrange meetings with Google and Facebook to discuss censorship measures this summer, but were unable to get either company to the table.
The suggestion that authorities now have free filter over all messages sent via the country’s top social network is a hugely worrying development from a privacy perspective, not to mention Line’s own security.
Last year, for example, Line was found to be vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks which could allow third parties to access messages sent over cellular data. Line patched the issue, and it has since introduced an encrypted chat feature, but anecdotally I’ve never seen anyone actually use it beyond the day it was launched.
It remains possible that the government could be keeping tabs on the service using its own system, and thus without the cooperation of Line. Officials were thought be planning their own internet gateway for a more efficient censorship system and that could tie into this.
No details have been announced publicly on the project and even if it is genuine it would take years to construct, but it highlights the possibility that Thailand might work with ISPs, operators and service providers but not internet companies themselves to monitor and govern its patch of cyberspace.
The latest version of messaging app Line includes Line Pay, a mobile payment system designed to take on the might of Alipay, PayPal, and Apple Pay. Pre-announced earlier this year, the service is available to Line users in many countries. In addition to Line Pay, version 4.8.0 also includes several other new features, including a typing status alert, and a low-storage warning.
Initially, Line Pay only works with in-app purchases. Line sells a wide variety of stickers, themes, games, goods, and even additional camera features inside the app. Earlier this year, Line revealed it had sold more than 12 million sticker sets across 124 countries, showing the popularity of the cute additions to the app. It has big plans for Line Pay in the future, including the ability to send money to friends, pay for other online services, and eventually, pay for goods in stores.
To use the service, Line users must add a compatible American Express, Visa, Diner’s Club, or JCB card, which will be protected by a separate seven-character password. Line also says it will monitor payment accounts 24-hours a day for suspicious activity. Payments made using Line Pay on your phone will require authentication using the password, or using Touch ID on an iPhone. Any Line desktop users will need to use the password.
Line Pay’s launch comes soon after the announcement of Line Music, a subscription-based streaming music service where Line has partnered with Sony and Avex Digital. It seems logical Line Pay will be integrated into Line Music when it eventually launches.
The Line update also adds a typing status alert, showing chatters when the other person is typing a reply, but this feature won’t be available to all users at first. Also, a warning will pop up when device storage is getting low if you’re trying to download images. Line says the update is available now for Android and iOS, but not all Android smartphones will be compatible with Line Pay.
Messaging app company Line is expanding into music streaming after it announced the launch of Line Music, a new venture backed by recording labels Avex Digital and Sony Music Entertainment.
The venture was first revealed in October, at Line’s annual event where it also unveiled global plans for its manga service and two new ventures for its games business. Now the business has been established, Line says it is preparing the groundwork to introduce “a new subscription-based music streaming service”.
Line Music, which is armed with 480,000,000 JPY (around $4 million), looks like being a global venture, although the company hasn’t revealed much information at this point:LINE MUSIC Corporation is currently in the process of holding concrete discussions on how to best capitalize on the appealing content and experience developing music services possessed by both ADG and SME, as well as the global user base and experience developing and operating smartphone services boasted by LINE, in order to provide opportunities for users to be exposed to new music, and to further develop and accelerate the expansion of the music industry as a whole by creating all new ways of enjoying music in the smartphone era.
It added that it “plans to make further announcements when detailed information regarding the service is finalized,” so we’ll have to wait on more specific information.
Line is keen to expand from being a top messaging app (it has over 500 million registered users, and 170 million monthly active users) into an entertainment and services platform. It is hatching plans for a raft of services in Japan — including taxi booking and food delivery — and it is also set to introduce its mobile payments service worldwide soon.
Even though the company is still to really break out in the U.S. and most of Europe, Line is pushing hard to bring its value added services to global users. Line Pay, for example, is due to launch worldwide soon — according to a press release mistakenly dispatched to media last week — while Line has invested in games and stickers to lure new users in the West.
It has even set up a temporary ‘pop-up’ store selling its merchandising in New York.
Ultimately, it is unclear whether this strategy will help bring new users aboard its messaging app — that’s particularly under debate in the U.S., where Facebook Messenger, Snapchat and Kik lead a competitive and congested market.
The competition is equally as strong in the music streaming space. YouTube just entered a field that already includes the likes of Google, Spotify, Beats, Pandora, Rdio and others.
Line, which is expected to reassess a potential IPO in 2015 having postponed a public listingthis year, owns 40 percent of Line Music. Sony Music holds a further 40 percent, with Avex Digital taking the remaining 20 percent.
The company said it doubled its revenue in its latest quarter of business. Line reported that it made $192 million in Q3 2014, but it did not reveal a figure for net profit or loss.
Today may be holiday time in the U.S., but it also seems to be a time for cleaning in Japan.Line, the messaging app company with 500 million registered users, just announced the closure of 15 of its third-party games, that’snearly half of the titles on its games platform and its second purge in six months.
In an announcement made suspiciously late on Friday evening Japanese time (to bury the news?), the company said the games — which include the likes of Punch Hero, Homerun Battle Burst, Sonic Dash S and Zookeeper — were closed to “focus its resources on titles that are enjoying greater growth in order to further propel the service as a global gaming platform.”
You won’t find games on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, but they are a major part of the Line experience. Users download separate apps for iOS and Android which then link up to their Line app to provide a game ID and the ability to share scores, battle friends and more. The service also offers non-gaming companion apps, which include apps for sticker creation, translations, photos and more.
With those 15 games removed from app stores, Line now offers 43 apps for iOS and 55 for Google Play — around half of those are games, including Disney Tsum Tsum (below) which has 30 million downloads. Line introduced its games platform in November 2012, and the company said this month it had clocked 470 million cumulative downloads.
Games barely affect Line users that don’t play them, but they can be hugely lucrative. In-app purchases — such as power-ups or boosters — from apps on the games platform collectively account for over half of Line’s revenue, which doubled annually to reach $192 million in Q3 2014.
Line, which this year postponed an IPO at a reported valuation of $10 billion valuation, shut one-third of its games (20 titles) back in June of this year, so a second purge just months later suggests that many of its titles were not sufficiently engaging or quickly became too dated.
The need for new material could mean titles from Gumi, the Japanese games studio Line invested in this summer, and 4:33, a Korean company that Line and Tencent jointly put $110 million into. Either way, compelling content is important for keeping existing users engaged, reaching new users and maintaining Line’s revenue growth — that latter point is particularly crucial as Line is likely to reassess its plan to go public in 2015.
Line was among the first to offer games, but these days U.S.-based duo Tango and Kik include similar services too, as well as Kakao Talk in Korea and WeChat in China. Facebook recently revealed that it tested highlighting games, before ultimately deciding to focus its platform and vast reach on app install ads instead.
