LINE aims to transform itself from a chat app serving some 33 million users in Thailand to offer new services across sectors, managing director Ariya Banomyong explained.

“LINE is still a start up, we need to scale up,” he said.

The MD explained that there is no dearth of apps in the market, adding that GooglePlay offers some 1.6 million apps and Apple’s AppStore offers 1.5 million, of which only 39 apps are installed on average and only 17 are used. Hence, he said, LINE aims to address this point by providing online-to-offline (O2O) services so users do not have to overload their devices with too many apps.

“LINE aims to become O2O service leader by becoming a platform and scaling up its existing services such as LINE TV, LINE Music and Giftshop by launching new localised services for Thailand,” Ariya said.

LINE has already launched the O2O service in Indonesia by partnering with the local taxi app Go-Jek. Go-Jek is now embedded in the LINE app, so taxis can be ordered on the same app.

“With O2O concept, users’ daily required services will be available through LINE,” Ariya said.

In the business segment, he said, LINE identifies itself as a platform closing the loop between business and users with three strategies, including enhancing the “Official Account” feature in order to engage users one-on-one via segmenting and profiling based on users’ demands; opening the application interface called “Business Connect” to let business users develop services; and launching the new feature called “Pay by Official Account”, which will allow users to subscribe to services or purchase products.

In the SME market, LINE will promote LINE@, under its B2B business unit, in order to encourage SMEs in Thailand to have an affordable digital-marketing tool to enhance their performance. LINE@ will become a paid service in April.

“Of the 2.8 million SMEs in Thailand, only 500,000 have an online presence and not all are active. Also, many find digital technology complicated, so LINE@ will address these points,” he said.

Ariya pointed out that commerce via mobiles and social media was fast becoming a trend in Thailand, with 60 per cent of the e-commerce traffic coming from mobiles in 2015.

“Mobile phones are the future of the Internet. According to Kasikorn Bank, mobile-banking accounts showed a rapid growth of 33 per cent from 9 million accounts to 12 million this year,” he said.

Currently, LINE’s revenue comes from three units namely games; business-to-business unit (official account and official sticker); and content included LINE TV and paid stickers; followed by its Giftshop and LINE Pay.

LINE’s global revenue as of the end of 2015 was US$1billion with 83 per cent of Thailand’s total 40 million mobile Internet users, closely following LINE’s home-market in Japan.