Japanese Messaging Company Line Makes Over $10 million Per Month From Selling Stickers

Line, the mobile messaging company from Japan, announced it is making over $10 million (1 billion yen) per month selling stickers, the rich emoticon-like content. And it says the figure is rising each month.



Line’s free messaging service reached 340 million users in December 2013. More than a messenger, the company defines an industry-wide shift from messaging apps into social platforms.

Its family of 52 apps — which includes games, tools, communication services and photo apps for iOS and Android — have been downloaded more than 290 million times — Line Camera alone has clocked 48 million downloads worldwide.

The company also makes money from other in-app purchases (particularly for games) and by charging for corporate messaging accounts. This month it announced record revenue of $120 million in revenue for Q4 2013 — a very different approach to WhatsApp‘s $0.99 per user per year business.