This statistic gives information on the number of registered users of the chat-app LINE in selected countries as of October 2014. During that month, the Japanese chat app had 33 million users in Indonesia. International chat app Originally developed in Japan in the wake of the Tōhoku earthquake in March 2011, LINE app was created as an online messaging alternative that did not have to rely on Japan’s then-damaged telecommunications structure. The app was released to the public in 2011 and reached 100 million users only 18 months after its initial release.

Apart from over-the-top messaging, LINE also offers free voice calls similar to Skype and thus provides an attractive alternative to paid mobile operating services. Furthermore, the app has also integrated social features such as timelines where users can post status messages to contacts. Aside from social networking features, LINE has also released a camera app and a gaming platform, LINE game. The in-app store of LINE enables users to purchase stickers that can be used similarly to emoji in chat discussions or to decorate photographs. LINE’s unique features are particularly popular in its home market Japan and other Asian countries. The company’s aggressive local marketing strategies, such as television commercials in Indonesia or flash sales in Thailand, ensure its continuous dominance of the Asian market.

This statistic shows a timeline with the amount of monthly active LINE users worldwide as of the fourth quarter of 2016. As of that period, the mobile messaging app announced more than 217 million monthly active users. In October 2014, LINE had also reported 560 million registered users worldwide.

The Japanese messenger app LINE was developed by engineers at NHN Japan, an arm of the South Korean Naver Corporation, in response to damaged telecommunications infrastructure nationwide in the aftermath of the devastating Tōhoku earthquake in March 2011. It was initially meant as an alternative communication channel for internal company use, but was released to the general public later that year.

Although it was intended as a mobile app for devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, later versions were made available on personal computers. Its main functions are exchanges of text, photo, video and audio messages, as well as performing of free Voice over IP (VoIP) conversations and video conferences, playing games and interacting with both personal connections and public accounts. As of 2012, LINE developed into a social network, with features similar to Facebook, such as a timeline where users can post status updates and other content. The sticker store, where users can create and sell their own LINE chat stickers, is one of LINE’s most popular features among Japanese users.

LINE is ranked among the ten most successful mobile messenger apps in the world. It is at the same time the second most successful on the Asian market, after the Chinese-based WeChat, but before the Korean KakaoTalk.

This statistic presents the number of LINE users in Japan from 2016 to 2021. In 2016, approximately 45.5 million Japanese mobile phone users accessed Naver's messaging app LINE to communicate. This figure is projected to grow to about 58.5 million users in 2021.

This statistic gives information on the number of registered users of the chat-app LINE. As of the beginning of October 2014, the Japanese chat app had 560 million users worldwide, up from 400 million users in April 2014. LINE and LINE Game LINE is a global chat app developed for Android and iOS smartphones which has since expanded to other mobile platforms and a desktop client. Originally created during the aftermath of the Tōhoku earthquake in March 2011, LINE was initially developed as an internet-based communication platform that could function without the then-damaged telecommunications infrastructure in Japan. LINE supports text and multimedia messaging and revealed a daily message volume of 10 billion messages in early April 2014. Users can also send photos, purchase stickers similar to emoji and make free voice calls similar to Skype.

LINE’s free messaging service proved a popular alternative to text-messaging and the app reached 100 million registered users within 18 months of its release. Aside from the instant messaging features, LINE has also integrated social networking elements such as user profiles as well as a personal timeline that allows users to share personal status messages with contacts in real-time.

Despite being devised as a mobile messenger, LINE has successfully transformed into a social app platform with a strong social gaming presence. Since launching in July 2012, the chat app’s gaming platform LINE Game has passed 300 million downloads. To access LINE Game content, users need a LINE account. The games feature strong social components as well as in-app purchases and thus strongly contribute to the company’s revenue stream.

As of February 2025, two billion users were accessing the WhatsApp messenger on a monthly basis. The app’s reach in usage penetration is particularly strong in markets outside the United States, and it is one of the most popular mobile social apps worldwide. WeChat amassed over 1.38 billion users, and Facebook Messenger amassed around 947 million users worldwide. Instant messaging is a type of online chat which offers real-time text transmission via internet. Since the appearance of the smartphone and the subsequent explosion of mobile apps, low-cost or free chat and social messaging apps have proven themselves as a cheap alternative to operator-based text messaging via SMS. Many messenger apps offer features such as group chats, the exchange of graphics, video and even audio messages as well as stickers or emoticons.

More than 5.6 million users worldwide were using LINE Pay during the second quarter of 2020. This constituted an increase of 1.8 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The online payment system has been available since 2014. LINE Corporation is known for operating Japan's most successful messaging app. As a breakdown of LINE Corporation's business segments shows, more than half of the company's revenues in 2019 were generated via advertising.

This statistic provides information on the number of monthly active users (MAU) of LINE Games worldwide as of the third quarter of 2017. In the last measured period, LINE Games had approximately 21.8 million MAU.

People aged 45 to 49 years old made up more than 12 percent of the advertising audience of LINE in Japan in 2023. The messaging app was released in 2011 and subsequently became Japan's dominating messenger service.

As of July 2020, the average number of Line Man users per day on the Dtac mobile network in Thailand amounted to around one million. Since March 2020, such value grew by 22 percent. Line Man app provides services for food, grocery, package delivery, messenger, and taxi service in Thailand.

Out of the Latin American and Caribbean profiled, Barbados had the highest fixed-line telephone penetration rate in 2023, with 43 fixed phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. Uruguay followed with over 35 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.

In 2022, WhatsApp was the chat and communication app most used on daily basis among Android users, with 1.35 billion monthly active users (MAU). Facebook messenger ranked second, with over 763 million MAU, while Telegram counted 412 million users active on monthly basis. Chat and VoIP communication app Line saw 65 million monthly active users mainly in its Asian market.

As of December 2021, WeChat and Weixin had about 1.27 billion monthly active users, ranking first among the most popular Asia-based mobile messengers. This was followed by runner-up LINE with 178 million monthly active users in the key markets Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia. WeChat (China), LINE (Japan), and KakaoTalk (South Korea) are market leaders in their country of origin.

Mobile messengers in Asia Pacific

Besides text and voice messaging, WeChat, LINE, Hike and KakaoTalk also provide various other features such as photo and video sharing, digital payment and mobile gaming through mini apps that are integrated in the app itself while offering accounts for both private and business users. Combining all these features in one application is one of the reasons why these messenger apps have been witnessing increasing user numbers in the past years. Further factors for the popularity of messenger apps is the importance of social networks in countries such as China and the high internet usage and internet connectivity in places like South Korea.

Global players

User demand for special features, such as photo-sharing, video-sharing, voice messages or emoticons, as well as zero or low costs of messaging via an internet connection, have created a need for mobile messenger apps on the market. Globally, WhatsApp has been the market leader with 1.6 billion monthly users around the world as of October 2019, followed by Facebook Messenger and WeChat.

As of January 2024, Nigeria had more than 103 million internet users - the highest number reported all over Africa. Meanwhile, Egypt ranked second with over 82 million users. The majority of web traffic in leading digital markets in Africa originated from mobile devices - in Nigeria, one of the countries with the largest number of internet users worldwide, 86.2 percent of web traffic was generated via smartphones and roughly 13.3 percent via PC devices. This is due in part to the fact that mobile connections are much cheaper and do not require the infrastructure that is needed for traditional desktop PCs with fixed-line internet connections.

Anticipating remarkable growth: Africa's internet user surge and projected milestones The projected trend for Africa indicates a consistent rise in internet users from 2024 to 2029. It will have a collective addition of 337.3 million users (equivalent to a growth of 51.79 percent). Following fifteen successive years of growth, the user count is anticipated to reach a record high of 1.1 billion by 2029. Furthermore, the online penetration rate on the continent was 43 percent – which was below the global average, measured at around 68 percent.

Unveiling internet trends The region has witnessed a steady increase in internet users over the years. In January 2024, Southern Africa stood out as the African region with the most substantial internet penetration rate, reaching approximately 73.1 percent. The proportion of individuals accessing the internet in this part of Africa and Northern Africa surpassed the global average (66.2 percent). Moreover, Morocco boasted an impressive internet penetration of about 91 percent, securing its position as Africa's foremost country. Libya held the second position with a penetration rate of approximately 88 percent, followed closely by Seychelles at around 86.7 percent.

As of January 2024, Morocco had an internet penetration of approximately 91 percent, making it the country with the highest internet penetration in Africa. Libya ranked second, with around 88 percent, followed by Seychelles with roughly 87 percent. On the other hand, South Sudan, Burundi, and The Central African Republic had the lowest prevalence of internet among their population.

Varying but growing levels of internet adoption

Although internet usage varies significantly across African countries, the overall number of internet users on the continent jumped to around 646 million from close to 181 million in 2014. Of those, almost a third lived in Nigeria and Egypt only, two of the three most populous countries on the continent. Furthermore, internet users are expected to surge, reaching over 1.1 billion users by 2029.

Mobile devices dominate web traffic

Most internet adoptions on the continent occurred recently. This is among the reasons mobile phones increasingly play a significant role in connecting African populations. As of early January 2024, around 74 percent of the web traffic in Africa was via mobile phones, over 14 percentage points higher than the world average. Furthermore, almost all African countries have a higher web usage on mobile devices compared to other devices, with rates as high as 92 percent in Sudan. This is partly due to mobile connections being cheaper and not requiring the infrastructure needed for traditional desktop PCs with fixed-line internet connections.

Line Pay and Rakuten Pay each are to have around 33 percent more users by 2025 when compared to 2020. The two apps are just a few examples inside a fragmented market where several payment methods exist alongside each other. Japan is said to increasingly adopt more cashless payment methods, however. One noticeable name in this list, for example is that of PayPay, an app responsible for nearly half of the QR code payments in the country.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, there were 7.35 million internet users in Honduras. In 2021, 54.1 percent of Honduran population used the internet.

As of July 2024, cloud-based mobile messaging app Telegram reported 950 million monthly active users worldwide. Telegram is a chat app launched in 2013 by the brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov. The pair had previously founded the Russian social network VK, which they left when it was taken over by the Mail.ru Group. Telegram In 2023, the majority of Telegram’s global audience, was comprised by users aged between 25 and 34 years. Among the reasons to use Telegram, 80 percent of the platform’s users reported to “learn the majority of the news from Telegram.” After the announcement that WhatsApp was going to release a new privacy policy update was met with criticism in 2021, Telegram's audience and popularity spiked, bringing global downloads to 167 million. Telegram security criticism Despite claiming to be more secure than other mainstream messengers such as LINE or WhatsApp, Telegram has been frequently criticized by industry experts such as German consumer organization Stiftung Warentest or the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). One of the key points of criticism is Telegram’s failure to provide automatic end-to-end encryption (WhatsApp and LINE messenger have end-to-end encryption set up by default).

The number of phone lines across Western Europe rose from approximately 247 lines per thousand people in 1920, to 899 lines per thousand people in 1949. By comparison, the number of lines across select countries in Eastern and Southern Europe increased from just 12 to 79 lines per thousand people over the same time period.

In 2022, China had more smartphone users than any country in the world at more than 974 million. India had the second most smartphone users, amounting to around 659. These two countries are expected to continue to lead the smartphone user ranking, as China and India also rank one and two in regards to the largest populations worldwide and still have strong growth potential due to a relatively low smartphone penetration rate.

Smartphone penetration as economic indicator
The smartphone penetration rate can be used as one indicator to measure how advanced the economy of a country is. A smartphone penetration rate above 70 percent, for example, is common in countries with advanced economies. Outside Western Europe and the United States, smartphone penetration was highest in South Korea, as more than 76 percent of the population is using a smartphone. Japan is a notable exception to the 70 percent line, with penetration rates just under 60 percent.

Smartphone growth opportunities
After annual smartphone sales more than tripled from 2009 to 2015, the market began to plateau around 1.5 million units per year. Growth for the smartphone market is, however, still possible in emerging economies in Africa with large populations, such as Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia, Congo, Tanzania, and Nigeria, where mobile phone penetration is already high or picking up, but smartphones are not as pronounced yet.

In 2018, Brazil had 27.6 million residential fixed broadband subscribers, generating 5.3 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. In Mexico, there were 16 million of such subscriptions, with a revenue of 3.2 billion U.S. dollars.