The Mobile Messenger Race

The Mobile Messenger Race We have entered the age of social networks that are mobile first. WeChat, Line and KakaoTalk are some of the fastest growing mobile social platforms. Replacing many of the applications we use daily with one that houses everything. These platforms are where people go to pay bills, catch-up with friends, create multimedia content, buy things, and much more. WHERE ARE THESE MOBILE MESSENGERS FROM? LINE TALK Japan China Korea WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES AMONG THE PLATFORMS? LINE TALK Each has its own special point of differentiation WeChat wins at mobile payments and commerce Line wins in games and overall international users Kakao Talk wins in content; users love access to K-pop celebrities ARE CONSUMERS WILLING TO ENGAGE WITH BRANDS VIA MOBILE MESSENGER? From our real-time mobile surveys, the answer was a resounding YES. Philippines Nigeria Brazil Indonesia India Vietnam 87% 80% 75% 70% 65% 63% 56% 15% 56% of those surveyed in Indonesians used mobile the Philippines are using payments/commerce the >3 mobile messengers. most among countries surveyed at 15%. 76% 23% 21% LINE WeChat is the second While Whatsapp is the most popular mobile most popular in Brazil, messenger in Nigeria. WeChat and Line are gaining users. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR BRANDS? FANS THAT MATTER To even receive messages from brands, users need to actively search for them and opt-in to start the conversation. Users are in control, but brands benefit because those who opt-in truly want to receive information from them. REAL ROI With these platforms exploring varying mobile payments and commerce integration, brands are able to see the impact of investments in social more clearty. CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT Content matters more than ever. Mobile messengers are a more intimate medium and users are on-the-go so they expect information shared with them to reflect that. Messages are pushed immediately to the user, making it the fastest way to communicate. WHAT'S THE NEXT FOR MOBILE MESSENGERS? Mobile Messengers are Content Creators and Publishers Mobile messengers have highly active users. They currently enable users to create their own multimedia content (photos and videos) to share with their network and consume content from official accounts. With so many users creating and digesting information, there is a big opportunity in content creation and publication. HOW ARE THEY DOING THIS? By giving individuals and businesses the tools to create, build and share more on their platforms. Line Manga gives users Tencent, WeChat's parent company, launched Fengling, access to 30,000 comics. They can share their favorites with their Line friends via timeline function. Currently only offered in Japan, but has the potential to expand to other countries and types of a WeChat-based mobile web- site creation tool for mobile marketing in December 2013. Over 80,000 websites have since been created. content. "KakaoPage is an open market where any Individual can upload and sell their own content. An aspiring author can write a novel and sell it directly on KakaoPage with- out having to seek out a pub- lishing company. Likewise, big publishing companies or record labels can also distrib- ute their content through KakaoPage." Kakao announced in Jan- uary 2014 that it plans to launch a news content service in spring 2014. Line has automated bot accounts. There one account that translates Eng- lish to Spanish. Send a mes- sage in English, receive the same message translated into Spanish. Where will mobile messengers take us next? For more information contact @alicehu @msl_group Research done by Jana Sources: Fengling.com TechinAsia.com Koreaherald.com kakao.com en.lineblog.naver.hp MSLGROUP