Line launches mobile video app in Germany

Naver’s subsidiary Line launched its online and mobile video platform, Line Live, in Germany.

This is the first time the app has launched in a country other than Japan, where it was very successful after launching in Dec. 2015. It currently averages 24 million monthly users.

To enter the German market Line signed a partnership with ProSiebenSat.1, one of the leading local broadcasting stations. The channel will provide video content to Line Live’s online platform, some of which will be exclusive shared on the app.

A Naver spokesman explained that the version launched in Germany is slightly different from the Japanese original. Whereas Line Live in Japan is a platform where celebrities and ordinary people can share their live one-man broadcasting videos, Live Line’s German version will present on-air videos and replays provided by the broadcasting channel.

As in Japan, the target audience for Line Live in Germany will be people in their teens and 20s.

The company did not disclose why it chose Germany as the second market for Line Live, but said that there were many favorable circumstances including a successful deal with a major local television network.

Line’s parent company Naver has also been actively investing in the European market. In June the portal giant acquired the Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE), a lab based in France that has expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Naver and Line also announced the same month that they would support Station F, a French startup incubator, which would help increase the interaction of Naver’s engineers with global - especially European - startups.

Naver’s Co-Founder Lee Hae-jin has been focusing on looking for business opportunities abroad after he announced he would step down as the portal giant’s de facto chairman - a title he never used.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]