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Abstract:
The purpose of this research is to present the influence of the social media platform, LINE within Thailand, which is an application created for communication and social networking by the Japanese Line Company, a subsidiary of Korean Naver Corporation. Line has exerted a disproportionate influence on communications in Thailand since 2012, with an exponentially increasing user base that has placed Line as the second most positively mentioned brand within Thailand as reported by You Gov's Brand Index. Line Thailand is the second largest subsidiary and lucrative market for the Line application after Japan, with over 42 million users, a penetration rate of 83% of mobile users within the country. Thai Line users also display divergent behavior from users in other markets, spending 84 minutes per day on average using the app and receiving 52% more messages, 114% more pictures, 85% more videos and 52% more stickers per day than users in other markets, reflecting the unique usage of the application within Thailand.
In addition to personal use, both the public and private sectors of Thailand have embraced the Line application and use it to facilitate their productivity and value creation. Further, as line expands into further digital medias and facilitating payments Line will increasingly permeating even more facets of Thai life.
This paper aims to examine the divergent behavior of Thai Line users compared to other global markets, as well as examining related consumer law that governs the Line platform. The research will consist of qualitative primary research aimed at understanding how and why Line has dominated the Thai social media ecosystem by interviewing users, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders.
The result has found that many features of the line application such as stickers, text-to-speech functions, large group chats, integration of payment platforms and user generated content have especially appealed to Thai consumers and their social and expressive needs and social dynamics compared to other platforms.
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