Line, Japan’s take on WhatsApp, Is making a Digital Butler carrier

The Line messaging app, a jap rival to WhatsApp and WeChat, is engaged on a digital butler service in its quest to better monetize and compete with its peers, TechCrunch reviews. The product will likely be unveiled in Thailand later this month, and can make its approach to different markets shortly after if successful.

The butler service calls to mind companies like Alfred and Magic, which supposedly handle any and all requests, from errands to food delivery and flight bookings. TechCrunch notes that Line is already in talks with possible partners with for the new app.

Line, one among fast company‘s most modern corporations in 2015, has shifted its focus from the U.S. and Europe to Asia, where the company thinks it might probably choose up new customers more easily. Launching the brand new butler service in Thailand is a savvy move, since the majority of Line’s person base is situated there or in Japan or Taiwan; Line has up to now turned to its Thai customers to test apps like a tune-streaming carrier and a YouTube knockoff. The butler product would be the first app release from Line’s Bangkok-primarily based R&D center—its first place outdoor of Japan.

the brand new carrier, consistent with TechCrunch, is Line’s try and raise income and increase consumer increase—a vital push if the app hopes to crack a market dominated through some of its ambitious opponents. fb-owned WhatsApp, the messaging app to beat, has more than 900 million monthly customers, whereas fb’s Messenger app recently crossed 800 million. Line, then again, at the moment has 212 million users—not an enormous increase from 181 million, the quantity Line suggested about a 12 months in the past.

[via TechCrunch]