One of the main themes I shared at the Casual Connect Amsterdam conference last month was the rise of the mobile messaging platforms like WeChat, WhatsApp, Line and Kakao. They are growing exponentially, with Line up 450% Q4 2012 to Q4 2013. Revenues are driven through in-app purchases of digital stickers, emojicons and games. Clearly hitting upon a very timely trend as Rakutan announced a few days later their acquisitions of Viber for $900m and the monster acquisition of WhatsApp for $16bn plus earnout by Facebook. Now the latest is rumors of Softbank interested in investing into Line.
There is much to be said about these apps – their user engagement is off the charts. In the ever fickle consumerism era we live in, keeping users coming back day after day is golden.