SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Ignore Facebook and Twitter.

Two of Asia's most significant social media gamers, Kakao Speak and Line, are increasing by making cellular messaging apps an integral section of the lives of young Asians who desire to converse extra privately instead of shouting out in virtual arenas and risking troubles with trolls - or disclosing features of their life to their moms and dads they'd rather not share.

Kakao Discuss is the major messenger application in South Korea, with far more consumers than Facebook or Twitter. People today use it to hail cabs and transfer dollars, advancing toward a cashless modern society. Even South Korean federal government officials choose Kakao chat rooms for communicating with colleagues as opposed to email.

In this Thursday, March 24, 2016 image, visitors pose a image in entrance of a Line Corp. brand at a push conference venue of Line Meeting Tokyo 2016 in Urayasu, close to Tokyo. Line and Kakao Chat are two Asian cellular messengers that outgrew Facebook and Twitter in Japan and in South Korea in conditions of person selection.

But as advancement tempo of customers and revenues slowed, they have arrive less than tension to monetize new products and services.(AP Image/Shizuo Kambayashi)
In Japan, where by Line customers outnumber those people on Facebook or Twitter, men and women get adorable digital stickers to backlink to messages and use the app to search for music and employment.
In carrying out so, the apps are serving as test beds for electronic services, demonstrating ways the hottest tendencies in know-how and communication can be built-in with day-to-day daily life in the twenty first century.

Earlier mentioned all, they are producing money, whilst some of their goods, these kinds of as electronic stickers, would be a challenging market in other marketplaces. Silicon Valley investors and tech startups almost everywhere are watching carefully.
Here is a appear at Kakao Talk and Line, Asia's leading messenger application companies.
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KAKAO Converse: Headquartered on the southern island of Jeju, South Korea. The app was released in 2010.

OWNED BY: Kakao, South Korea's No. two Internet search engine, which counts former Naver CEO Kim Beom-su as the most significant shareholder.
Numbers: forty eight million lively consumers globally, which includes 40 million in South Korea. Sales at the proprietor of Kakao Speak attained 932.2 billion received ($808.five million) previous calendar year.
HITS: Kakao Communicate alone and its adorable emoticon figures. The enterprise was ready to build on the results of Kakao Speak when it released Kakao Story, an Instagram-like services which was at a single position much more well known than Fb among the South Koreans. But its user progress has been slowing.

The newest massive hit is Kakao Taxi, an Uber-like taxi hailing support.
Building Dollars: The 2012 launch of Kakao Recreation proved its initial large jackpot. Several mobile video games adopted a organization design in which consumers would have to either invite Kakao Converse friends or pay back to engage in additional rounds or get digital items. This fueled huge advancement in the mobile game industry in South Korea, supporting some recreation builders go public and amass dollars.

It also authorized advertisers like Uniqlo and mom-and-pop stores to interact with consumers a person-on-one particular.
Difficulties: Game revenue has declined considering that peaking in 2014 as match developers commenced to length on their own to help you save commission expenses. Following a controversy in 2014 over South Korean authorities' seizure of Kakao Chat person info, lots of clients have migrated to Berlin-based competitor Telegram.

Considering the fact that then, South Koreans have turn into wary of what they say on the app, which has not severely dented its traffic but has harm its status.
Enlargement: Kakao Converse has unsuccessfully tried out to broaden in Japan and Indonesia, both of those international locations the place Line is sturdy. As a substitute, the company has mainly focused on establishing new expert services for its massive Korean buyer base.

ANALYST Acquire: "They have to get a momentum in the cellular ad industry, but no messenger organizations have recognized themselves as strong an ad system as Fb," explained Justin Lee, an analyst at BNP Paribas in Seoul. Previously expectations for monetizing messenger applications may well have been extremely optimistic, he claimed.

"Due to the fact of the limits of just one-on-one expert services, its charm as an advertisement platform is not as large as Fb."
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LINE: Headquartered in Tokyo. Launched in 2011.
OWNED BY: South Korea's No. 1 Net look for engine firm Naver Corp.
Figures: 215 million energetic end users globally, sixty eight million in Japan. Recorded 120.7 billion yen ($one.1 billion) in profits previous 12 social media marketing trends for small business months.

HITS: Line has leveraged companies this sort of as merchandising of dolls and other products featuring mascot-like people these as Brown the bear. It also rakes in revenue from the sale 12 social media marketing trends for small business of emoticon stickers, known as "stamps" in Japan, to use with Line messages.
Many stamps are cost-free or cost quite very little, and Line has opened stamp coming up with to the public, maximizing their attractiveness. Taxi motorists, for instance, use distinctive stamps with their market jargon useful for fast interaction with other drivers in their staff. Some 2.4 billion this kind of stickers are sent each individual day, with sales reaching twenty five.three billion yen ($224 million) past year.

Totally free voice calls between Line end users, including global phone calls, are an additional explanation for its reputation.
Making Funds: Line has signed up important businesses for promoting these as Toyota and on the internet retailer Rakuten. It options to broaden its clientele, employing its knowledge of users' interests in targeting marketing expenditure trends in social media marketing. Such contracts now price tag about 50 million yen 12 social media marketing trends for small business ($five hundred,000), but will be available to smaller and medium-sizing enterprises at decrease charges.

Line predominantly appeals to younger people today, numerous of whom really don't have obtain to credit score cards. To get close to that challenge, Line has come up with its very own pay as you go playing cards that can be billed at ease-retailer chains.
Problems: Line is entering the cellular operator service in Japan, to be launched in a handful of months, starting up at an inexpensive five hundred yen ($four.forty) a month, using the telecommunications infrastructure of main Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo. Almost half of cell cell phone customers in Japan haven't however switched to smartphones, and Line hopes to catch the attention of those customers when they last but not least make the swap.

Growth: Line has also been focusing on expanding to Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia. To appeal to these types of marketplaces, it has designed regionally oriented serial dramas to enjoy. It also delivers tunes and work-lookup providers and is branching into on the web news.
ANALYST Acquire: "It is vital for Line to proceed focusing on its localization method," stated Jun Wen Woo, an analyst at IHS. "Users from Japan and Taiwan might have comparable interests in Japanese comics, but end users from Thailand and Indonesia could be more fascinated in other material these as video games." Line people have been dropping outdoors the four most important international locations, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia, she mentioned.

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Facebook AND TWITTER:
Facebook, which features 1.6 billion buyers globally, has about sixteen million monthly lively customers in South Korea and twenty five million in Japan. Instagram, the image-sharing mobile app owned by Facebook, has 6 million end users in South Korea and 8.one million in Japan. Globally, Instagram has four hundred million buyers.

Fb has been attaining traction together with Instagram in South Korea. Facebook's end users there jumped practically fifty % from 2013 to 2015.
Twitter, meanwhile, has 320 million buyers close to the world and 35 million in Japan, one of its biggest marketplaces. It is preferred in Japan for to its quick, newsy sense and the alternative for anonymity that Japanese are likely to favor.

Koreans tend to view Twitter as a niche, choice system for people today trying to get to voice belief anonymously. Twitter does not disclose a place-specific user selection for South Korea. Seoul-primarily based current market analysis firm Rankey.com estimates that there are 1.2 million Twitter people in the region, but its estimate is based on a survey of 60,000 Android telephone homeowners and does not consist of Iphone buyers.

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Observe Youkyung Lee on Twitter at web-site
Her operate can be identified on: web page
Yuri Kageyama noted from Tokyo.
Observe her on Twitter at: website
Her perform can be located at web site
In the April four, 2016, image, a well-liked character of Kakao Converse is exhibited at Kakao Pals Shop 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 terms of consumer amount. But as expansion rate of users and revenues slowed, they have come under tension to monetize new expert services.

Kakato Talks has 48 million lively customers in about 230 nations, which includes 40 million in South Korea. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
In the April 5, 2016, image, a guy, ideal, employs his smartphone to deliver messages through Kakao Talks, a South Korean cellular messaging application, in Seoul, South Korea. Kakao Discuss and Line are two Asian mobile messengers that outgrew Facebook and Twitter in Japan and in South Korea in terms of user number.

But as advancement tempo of people and revenues slowed, they have come under pressure to monetize new products and services. Kakao Talks has 48 million active buyers in about 230 nations, such as forty million in South Korea. (AP Photograph/Ahn Younger-joon)
In the April five, 2016, image, passengers use their smartphones on a subway practice in Seoul, South Korea. The big social media marketing the next generation of business trends-media players in Asia are rising by creating cellular messaging applications an integral aspect of the individual and expert life of younger Asians who prefer to connect inside of their very own private teams instead of shouting out their existence in digital arenas and jeopardizing problems with trolls, or disclosing factors of their lives to their mom and dad they