SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Forget about Fb and Twitter.

Two of Asia's biggest social media gamers, Kakao Talk and Line, are escalating by making mobile messaging apps an integral portion of the lives of younger Asians who want to talk much more privately as an alternative of shouting out in virtual arenas and jeopardizing problems with trolls - or disclosing elements of their lives to their mom and dad they'd relatively not share.

Kakao Chat is the leading messenger application in South Korea, with a lot more people than Fb or Twitter. Persons use it to hail cabs and transfer funds, advancing towards a cashless society. Even South Korean government officials choose Kakao chat rooms for speaking with colleagues as opposed to e-mail.

In this Thursday, March 24, 2016 image, guests pose a photograph in entrance of a Line Corp. emblem at a press convention location of Line Convention Tokyo 2016 in Urayasu, close to Tokyo. Line and Kakao Communicate are two Asian mobile messengers that outgrew Fb and Twitter in Japan and in South Korea in terms of person selection.

But as expansion speed of customers and revenues slowed, they have arrive underneath strain to monetize new services.(AP Photograph/Shizuo Kambayashi)
In Japan, in which Line people outnumber these on Fb or Twitter, men and women get cute digital stickers to backlink to messages and use the app to look for for tunes and positions.
In carrying out so, the apps are serving as test beds for digital products and services, demonstrating methods the most current developments in technological innovation and interaction can be built-in with everyday existence in the 21st century.

Previously mentioned all, they are generating money, whilst some of their products and solutions, these types of as digital stickers, would be a really hard offer in other markets. Silicon Valley investors and tech startups just about everywhere are viewing intently.
Here is a glance at Kakao Speak and Line, Asia's top fashion trends summer 2016 rated messenger app corporations.
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KAKAO Speak: Headquartered on the southern island of Jeju, South Korea. The app was produced in 2010.

OWNED BY: Kakao, South Korea's No. 2 Net search engine, which counts former Naver CEO Kim Beom-su as the biggest shareholder.
Figures: 48 million active customers globally, such as 40 million in South Korea. Product sales at the operator of Kakao Communicate achieved 932.two billion received ($808.five million) final calendar year.
HITS: Kakao Speak by itself and its sweet emoticon figures. The enterprise was ready to establish on the success of Kakao Communicate when it released Kakao Story, an Instagram-like support which was at one particular place a lot more preferred than Fb amongst South Koreans. But its user development has been slowing.

The most current significant hit is Kakao Taxi, an Uber-like taxi hailing company.
Producing Funds: The 2012 launch of Kakao Activity proved its to start with huge jackpot. A lot of cellular online games adopted a company design the place customers would have to both invite Kakao Converse close friends or fork out to participate in much more rounds or purchase digital things. This fueled massive development in the cellular game current market in South Korea, aiding some game developers go community and amass money.

It also permitted advertisers like Uniqlo and mom-and-pop outlets to interact with users a single-on-a person.
Difficulties: Game income has declined considering that peaking in 2014 as activity builders started to distance by themselves to help save commission charges. Pursuing a controversy in 2014 more than South Korean authorities' seizure of Kakao Talk person facts, lots of buyers have migrated to Berlin-based competitor Telegram.

Considering that then, South Koreans have grow to be wary of what they say on the app, which has not seriously dented its visitors but has harm its reputation.
Expansion: Kakao Talk has unsuccessfully tried using to increase in Japan and Indonesia, the two nations around the world where Line is powerful. As a substitute, the enterprise has mostly concentrated on acquiring new providers for its massive Korean shopper base.

ANALYST Consider: "They have to get a momentum in the mobile ad current market, but no messenger firms have recognized them selves as sturdy an advertisement system as Facebook," stated Justin Lee, an analyst at BNP Paribas in Seoul. Earlier expectations for monetizing messenger applications might have been extremely optimistic, he claimed.

"Due to the fact of the limitations of a person-on-one particular expert services, its attraction as an advert platform is not as big as Facebook."
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LINE: Headquartered in Tokyo. Launched in 2011.
OWNED BY: South Korea's No. 1 Web lookup engine enterprise Naver Corp.
Figures: 215 million energetic people globally, sixty eight million in Japan. Recorded a hundred and twenty.seven billion yen ($1.one billion) in sales past calendar year.

HITS: Line has leveraged enterprises these types of as merchandising of dolls and other goods that includes mascot-like people this sort of as Brown the bear. It also rakes in revenue from the sale of emoticon stickers, referred to as "stamps" in Japan, to use with Line messages.
Many stamps are no cost or cost pretty very little, and Line has opened stamp planning to the general public, enhancing their charm. Taxi motorists, for instance, use exclusive stamps with their field jargon helpful for rapid communication with other motorists in their crew. Some two.four billion these kinds of stickers are despatched just about every day, with revenue reaching 25.three billion yen ($224 million) final yr.

Totally free voice calls amongst Line buyers, which include international phone calls, are a further reason for its level of popularity.
Building Money: Line has signed up main providers for promoting these types of as Toyota and on the web retailer Rakuten. It plans to expand its clientele, using its information of users' passions in focusing on advertising. These contracts now expense about 50 million yen ($five hundred,000), but will be provided to smaller and medium-size organizations at reduced costs.

Line predominantly appeals to youthful people, numerous of whom don't have accessibility to credit rating playing cards. To get all-around that trouble, Line has come up with its own pay as you go cards that can be billed at convenience-store chains.
Worries: Line is entering the mobile operator company in Japan, to be introduced in a handful of months, starting at an inexpensive 500 yen ($four.40) a thirty day period, working with the telecommunications infrastructure of key Japanese provider NTT DoCoMo. Just about fifty percent of mobile cellphone people in Japan have not still switched to smartphones, and Line hopes to catch the attention of individuals people when they last but not least make the switch.

Growth: Line has also been concentrating on expanding to Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia. To enchantment to this kind of marketplaces, it has developed locally oriented serial dramas to observe. It also presents music and occupation-search services and is branching into on line news.
ANALYST Consider: "It is important for Line to proceed focusing on its localization approach," stated Jun Wen Woo, an analyst at IHS. "Consumers from Japan and Taiwan may perhaps have equivalent pursuits in Japanese comics, but end users from Thailand and Indonesia may possibly be extra intrigued in other written content these types of as game titles." Line users have been dropping outside the house the four most important nations around the world, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia, she explained.

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Fb AND TWITTER:
Fb, which offers one.six billion consumers globally, has about sixteen million month to month energetic customers in South Korea and 25 million in Japan. Instagram, the photograph-sharing cellular application owned by Fb, has six million consumers in South Korea and 8.1 million in Japan. Globally, Instagram has four hundred million end users.

Facebook has been getting traction alongside with Instagram in South Korea. Facebook's buyers there jumped virtually fifty p.c from 2013 to 2015.
Twitter, meanwhile, has 320 million customers all-around the environment and 35 million in Japan, a person of its major marketplaces. It is popular in Japan for to its speedy, newsy experience and the option for anonymity that Japanese are likely to favor.

Koreans tend to view Twitter as a market, alternative system for people trying to find to voice belief anonymously. Twitter does not disclose a state-specific user selection for South Korea. Seoul-dependent marketplace research firm Rankey.com estimates that there are 1.2 million Twitter customers in the state, but its estimate is based mostly on a survey of sixty,000 Android mobile phone homeowners and does not include things like Apple iphone end users.

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In the April 4, 2016, photo, a well-liked character of Kakao Discuss is exhibited at Kakao Pals Store in Seoul, South Korea. Kakao Discuss and Line are two Asian cellular messengers that outgrew Facebook and Twitter in Japan and in South Korea in conditions of user range. But as expansion tempo of end users and revenues slowed, they have occur beneath stress to monetize new expert services.

Kakato Talks has forty eight million energetic buyers in about 230 nations, together with forty million in South Korea. (AP Photograph/Ahn Younger-joon)
In the April five, 2016, picture, a guy, proper, makes use of his smartphone to deliver messages through Kakao Talks, a South Korean mobile messaging app, in Seoul, South Korea. Kakao Talk and Line are two Asian cellular messengers that outgrew Fb and Twitter in Japan and in South Korea in conditions of person range.

But as progress pace of customers and revenues slowed, they have arrive under stress to monetize new services. Kakao Talks has 48 million energetic users in about 230 nations, which includes 40 million in South Korea. (AP Picture/Ahn Younger-joon)
In the April five, 2016, photo, travellers use their smartphones on a subway educate in Seoul, South Korea. The major social-media gamers in Asia are growing by producing mobile messaging apps an integral portion of the personal and qualified life of young Asians who desire to communicate inside of their individual private teams as an alternative of shouting out their existence in digital arenas and risking difficulties with trolls, or disclosing areas of their life to their parents they