Monday, August 11th, 2014
SEOUL, KOREA - Mobile messengers "Line" and "KakaoTalk" have been inoperational in China for more than a month. This is because the Chinese government cut off the services in order to prevent terrorists from using the messengers as their communication tool. If this continues for a while, it will deal a big blow to Line and KakaoTalk by losing out the critically important Chinese market to local rivals.
According to the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning on August 8, the Chinese government recently ordered Line and KakaoTalk shut down their services in China as it discovered messages being exchanged among terrorist cells. Lee Jin-kyu, Internet policy manager for the ministry, said in a briefing on the 7th, "We were notified by the Chinese government of the news but we haven't been able to confirm such evidence." He added, however, that it is unlikely the Chinese government intentionally blocked the services as a way to protect home-grown messenger services at the expense of foreign operators.
Still, domestic industry leaders are suspicious of the Chinese government's motives. An industry official commented, "WeChat is the largest domestic mobile messenger service competing head-to-head with Line. Line's service is 100 percent shut down while that of KakaoTalk is available in a limited way allowing exchange of text messages and photos. Maybe is that because China's Tencent holds a partial stake in the company?
Line has been the biggest loser from the recent shutdown. Lately Line's popularity peaked in China after the K-drama "My Love from the Star" showed scenes in which the main characters use the Line messenger service to exchange messages. It opened on July 4 a store in Shanghai selling Line characters. But its popularity faded after the government cracked down on the service.