Re: [tlug] Fixing Sound AGAIN

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 1:56 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:
> Raymond Wan writes:
>
>  > For what it's worth, Line is getting popular as a smartphone app here
>  > in Hong Kong.
>
> It seems to be the main comms for my daughter's classmates.
>
> But it sorta scares me.  What's the business model?  Benesse in
> spades?


For Line, I think it's the purchase of the stickers.  You use your
credit card to buy coins and coins are used to buy stickers and/or new
themes.

It's also used for marketing.  The characters in Line are getting
well-known even in HK so not only is the standard Line merchandise is
being sold, but I saw a commercial on the train this week from an
electronics store (i.e., Bic Camera equivalent) using the Line
characters on the side saying the price is so low.  No doubt the store
paid some money to Line.  If they don't have recognizable characters,
they can't do this.

I'm not so sure how useful it is for a bear and a rabbit to tell me
that the tv's price is low.  But if we think that carefully, then most
commercials on tv are also useless.  :-)

Similarly, a shopping mall here had a Line event where you can take
pictures with the characters and buy their goods.  Brought lots of
people to the shopping mall...even me.

Honestly, just when I thought Whatsapp had a monopoly [WeChat doesn't
count since it seems to be used mainly in China but is very successful
there], Line came in and did what Whatsapp did but threw cute
characters into it in a way that only Japan can do.  In fact, there's
a late night anime on tv in Japan.  I saw a couple of episodes on
Youtube...quite funny!  You can't imagine Whatsapp doing this...

And while Whatsapp hooks you in for free for a while and then charges
you, Line claims to never charge you.  If the above (coin purchasing,
brand marketing, etc.) succeeds, they probably don't need to...

I think your daughter's fine as long as she's never tempted to connect
her account to a credit card.  I think once the two are linked, then
buying coins are really easy.  There are privacy settings to keep
someone from adding you.  Standard feature nowadays, I think...

Ray