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This stuff is a fad, like the housing bubble and the .com boom. People who don't really understand technology or the internet or how people use both think they

This stuff is a fad, like the housing bubble and the .com boom. People who don't really understand technology or the internet or how people use both think they smell gold and they take us on these ridiculous roller coaster rides about "The next big killer app" or whatever. Then that app is dead in 5 years. I guess if all one is interested in is making money, then good for them, kudos. But in the grander sense.. "the internet shrugged."

Larrikin 10y ago
Line is a fad like Facebook is a fad then. Pretty much every single person in Japan with a smartphone has the app and it is the standard way to communicate. I didn't need a phone plan when I lived there because I ended up making maybe 5 actual phone calls over the course of 3 years because LINE totally served my needs. The only people I met with a Facebook were people who liked traveling and were actively looking for English speaking friends.
- brobinson 10y ago
  Almost every person in Taiwan has LINE, too. Something like 75% of the country has an account.
  - mrtron 10y ago
    And everyone who communicates with people in Taiwan. Sticker sets are shockingly popular with the 40+ crowd.
- reustle 10y ago
  This is also the case in countries down south like Thailand. Everyone who is anyone is on LINE, and businesses display their LINE ID before anything else.
  - inthaiguy 10y ago
    Line ID + FB page and now more often Instagram.
- kalleboo 10y ago
  > I didn't need a phone plan when I lived there because I ended up making maybe 5 actual phone calls over the course of 3 years because LINE totally served my needs. And of course LINE has now announced their own MVNO where you get unlimited LINE for 500 yen/mo...
sho_hn 10y ago
I'm not sure that's the case for Line. I've used Line only sparingly, but I live in South Korea, which has KakaoTalk, the chat app usually described as being to Korea what Line is to Japan (or vice-versa, since Line was patterned after Kakao). Their UX is very similar. KakaoTalk is huge. It's hard to separate from being Korean. Everybody has it by default. It's the standard way to communicate. It's used for notifications. The merchandising is everywhere, from its own retail stores to branded products on every corner. The characters are beloved. A new sticker pack is a highlight of the day. Using stickers well is a significant element of social eloquence. There's no laptop screen without it; if people are seen typing into a phone it's probably what they are typing into. KakaoTalk is so fundamental to Korean daily life, it's more like ... the water supply. It's a fact of being here and not there. It's culture. Will KakaoTalk perish one day? Maybe. The open standards and anti-surveillance ideologist in me adds "hopefully". But if it does it will nonetheless have provided the substrate for an entire generation, a vast moment in time. Innovators may shrug, technologists may shrug - but if the whole thing we do is about building civilization and facilitating culture, as I believe it is, KakaoTalk is factually that in action. Some fad that is.
- voltagex_ 10y ago
  That's interesting - what do you mean by being used for notifications? Sites / services / stores can send you a KakaoTalk notification? I experimented with sending alerts for server health via WhatsApp but the phone number -> ID ties make it difficult.
  - sho_hn 10y ago
    Many restaurants here offer a bonus point program - you tap your phone number into the touchscreen of their POS system, and then you get a customized message from the restaurant on your Kakao. Kakao accounts are affiliated with a phone number, so similar to WhatsApp, you will get friend suggestions based on your phone number address book and similar.
- simbalion 10y ago
  It's only existed for 5 years. Technology moves very swiftly and with new capabilities comes new apps, something will replace it and so I call them fads, maybe I'm wrong to do so, but let's see if it still exists in 20 years. Someone else deserves the credit for saying this, but the only things that survive on the internet are protocols. E-mail, FTP, HTTP, and as it relates to messaging, Jabber. These things are not fads and the only reason I've seen them fail is when the technology does not live up to the needs of people. If Jabber didn't have a number of important issues, perhaps all chat apps would still be using Jabber and none of these "SMS Replacements" would exist. I think I might be biased, because none of the popular chat apps in recent years has been truly open. I hate proprietary messaging apps. I hate when progress takes a back door to profiteering, especially when the profit model is selling stupid, un-exportable .gifs for $1 each. Talk about preying on the weak.
untog 10y ago
Easy to say about any new app. Do you include Facebook and Google in this? They were most certainly a "killer app/site" at launch, but managed to stick around.
- simbalion 10y ago
  Yes, however neither google nor facebook can be pinned down to a single product. They are now holding companies which own dozens of products, some of which are successful, some which are fads.
  - sho_hn 10y ago
    Ditto the Kakao and Line brands. Which are in turn operated by Daum and Naver - the two Korean internet giants. Google Maps for example is nigh on useless here: People use Naver Maps or Daum Maps. Line's principal visual identity is true to the mothership and uses "Naver green".

Larrikin 10y ago

Line is a fad like Facebook is a fad then. Pretty much every single person in Japan with a smartphone has the app and it is the standard way to communicate. I didn't need a phone plan when I lived there because I ended up making maybe 5 actual phone calls over the course of 3 years because LINE totally served my needs. The only people I met with a Facebook were people who liked traveling and were actively looking for English speaking friends.

brobinson 10y ago
Almost every person in Taiwan has LINE, too. Something like 75% of the country has an account.
- mrtron 10y ago
  And everyone who communicates with people in Taiwan. Sticker sets are shockingly popular with the 40+ crowd.
reustle 10y ago
This is also the case in countries down south like Thailand. Everyone who is anyone is on LINE, and businesses display their LINE ID before anything else.
- inthaiguy 10y ago
  Line ID + FB page and now more often Instagram.
kalleboo 10y ago
> I didn't need a phone plan when I lived there because I ended up making maybe 5 actual phone calls over the course of 3 years because LINE totally served my needs. And of course LINE has now announced their own MVNO where you get unlimited LINE for 500 yen/mo...

sho_hn 10y ago

I'm not sure that's the case for Line. I've used Line only sparingly, but I live in South Korea, which has KakaoTalk, the chat app usually described as being to Korea what Line is to Japan (or vice-versa, since Line was patterned after Kakao). Their UX is very similar. KakaoTalk is huge. It's hard to separate from being Korean. Everybody has it by default. It's the standard way to communicate. It's used for notifications. The merchandising is everywhere, from its own retail stores to branded products on every corner. The characters are beloved. A new sticker pack is a highlight of the day. Using stickers well is a significant element of social eloquence. There's no laptop screen without it; if people are seen typing into a phone it's probably what they are typing into. KakaoTalk is so fundamental to Korean daily life, it's more like ... the water supply. It's a fact of being here and not there. It's culture. Will KakaoTalk perish one day? Maybe. The open standards and anti-surveillance ideologist in me adds "hopefully". But if it does it will nonetheless have provided the substrate for an entire generation, a vast moment in time. Innovators may shrug, technologists may shrug - but if the whole thing we do is about building civilization and facilitating culture, as I believe it is, KakaoTalk is factually that in action. Some fad that is.

voltagex_ 10y ago
That's interesting - what do you mean by being used for notifications? Sites / services / stores can send you a KakaoTalk notification? I experimented with sending alerts for server health via WhatsApp but the phone number -> ID ties make it difficult.
- sho_hn 10y ago
  Many restaurants here offer a bonus point program - you tap your phone number into the touchscreen of their POS system, and then you get a customized message from the restaurant on your Kakao. Kakao accounts are affiliated with a phone number, so similar to WhatsApp, you will get friend suggestions based on your phone number address book and similar.
simbalion 10y ago
It's only existed for 5 years. Technology moves very swiftly and with new capabilities comes new apps, something will replace it and so I call them fads, maybe I'm wrong to do so, but let's see if it still exists in 20 years. Someone else deserves the credit for saying this, but the only things that survive on the internet are protocols. E-mail, FTP, HTTP, and as it relates to messaging, Jabber. These things are not fads and the only reason I've seen them fail is when the technology does not live up to the needs of people. If Jabber didn't have a number of important issues, perhaps all chat apps would still be using Jabber and none of these "SMS Replacements" would exist. I think I might be biased, because none of the popular chat apps in recent years has been truly open. I hate proprietary messaging apps. I hate when progress takes a back door to profiteering, especially when the profit model is selling stupid, un-exportable .gifs for $1 each. Talk about preying on the weak.

untog 10y ago

Easy to say about any new app. Do you include Facebook and Google in this? They were most certainly a "killer app/site" at launch, but managed to stick around.

simbalion 10y ago
Yes, however neither google nor facebook can be pinned down to a single product. They are now holding companies which own dozens of products, some of which are successful, some which are fads.
- sho_hn 10y ago
  Ditto the Kakao and Line brands. Which are in turn operated by Daum and Naver - the two Korean internet giants. Google Maps for example is nigh on useless here: People use Naver Maps or Daum Maps. Line's principal visual identity is true to the mothership and uses "Naver green".