Naver Goes Global with LINE

SEOUL, KOREA- Naver, the largest online portal in Korea, is going global with a focus on its "LINE."Naver formulated a blueprint aimed at promoting LINE throughout the world by aggressively increasing marketing expenses, thereby acquiring more global users.

Naver held a conference call for the presentation of its second-quarter results on August 8. More than 80 percent of questions raised during the conference call were related to LINE.

LINE posted sales of 111.9 billion won in the second quarter of this year, accounting for more than 50 percent of Naver's overseas sales. This figure represents a remarkable year-on-year growth of 2,285.9 percent. In particular, LINE created more than 80 percent of its sales in Japan.

Games took up a share of more than 50 percent in LINE's total sales, followed by online stamps with 30 percent and others with 20 percent. Naver, in particular, which separated from Hangame on August 1, is preparing to stage aggressive LINE marketing.

Naver budgeted 250 billion won for this year's marketing expenses and spent 85 billion won until the second quarter. Naver plans to spend some of the remainder to promote LINE in the second half, aimed at maintaining its popularity in Japan and expanding the number of LINE users in other countries.