The workplace collaboration messenger service 'LINE WORKS' from Naver Cloud surpassed 40% market share in the workplace paid messenger market (Japan) last year. LINE WORKS has maintained the top position for seven consecutive years since 2017.
Kim Yoo-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, held a press conference on the 9th at the Hilton Hotel in Osaka, Japan, and shared this regarding the achievements of LINE WORKS, which marks its 10th anniversary in the Japanese market.
LINE WORKS Japan was established in June 2015 in Shibuya, Tokyo, and began services in January 2016. LINE WORKS rapidly penetrated the Japanese workplace messenger market by offering field-friendly features, a mobile-centric intuitive user experience (UX), and quick feedback. While the revenue in the first month after the launch of LINE WORKS in January 2016 was only 19,672 yen (about 180,000 won), the average monthly revenue last year increased to 1.166 billion yen (about 1.1 billion won), a growth of over 65,000 times. Last year's revenue reached 14 billion yen (about 1.311 billion won), marking the highest performance in the last 10 years. As of January this year, the number of customers using LINE WORKS is 590,000, a growth of about 69% compared to 2022 (350,000). Currently, there are 5.8 million users.
The first country to launch LINE WORKS was Japan, not Korea. Korea was introduced five years later in 2021. According to the industry, the reason Japan was chosen as the first launch country was due to Lee Hae-jin's decision that 'we need to compete globally, not domestically, but in Japan.'
One of the keys to LINE WORKS' success is pointed out as Japan's corporate culture, which is different from Korea. The CEO Kim noted, 'Japan is very strict about privacy and thoroughly separates work and private areas, so people do not readily share their personal phone numbers. I don't even know the contact information of the president of LINE WORKS Japan,' adding that 'the demand for separate workplace chatting services has increased within Japanese corporations, and as concerns about leakage of confidential internal documents have grown due to the mix of personal messengers in work, the expansion of services in Japan has accelerated.'
Another key to success is service support tailored to local corporate needs. LINE WORKS strengthened its customer-centric services and was ranked first in the Nikkei customer satisfaction survey in 2021. Shimaoka Takeshi, head of LINE WORKS Japan, stated, 'Our clients include Japan's top non-life insurance company, Tokyo Marine Nichido, and the top seven financial corporations in Japan,' explaining, 'For instance, financial companies have specific customization requests, such as deleting everything but the last week's messaging data or preventing file downloads on mobile apps, which we meet, leading to a high level of satisfaction.'
CEO Kim also explained why Naver Cloud is focusing on 'Software as a Service (SaaS)' businesses like LINE WORKS rather than its core cloud business in Japan. He stated, 'Entering advanced markets like the United States or Japan is a significant capital burden if attempted merely through cloud services against global tech giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google,' adding, 'Therefore, focusing on specialized SaaS in the Japanese market was necessary, with LINE WORKS and the artificial intelligence (AI) greeting call service, Clova Care Call, being the prime examples.' He continued, 'Basic cloud is also necessary for operating SaaS, so this naturally leads to an expansion of the cloud business.' Recently, Naver Cloud signed a business agreement for the introduction of Clova Care Call with Izumo City in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. This is the first case of applying Clova Care Call to a Japanese local government.
Meanwhile, LINE WORKS is enhancing its product lineup equipped with AI functions. Last November, LINE WORKS launched the official version of its AI voice recording management service, 'LINE WORKS AiNote,' and in February this year, it introduced a new product, LINE WORKS Roger, which allows users to use their smartphones like walkie-talkies, utilizing AI to freely switch between text and voice.