'Ecosystem' apps like this remind me of stuff like Neopets [1], where you spend time (and money) within a social gaming portal. Of course, these gaming portals

'Ecosystem' apps like this remind me of stuff like Neopets [1], where you spend time (and money) within a social gaming portal. Of course, these gaming portals of old started with gaming and later expanded into chat and social, whereas LINE (and Facebook) went the other way. They're also vaguely similar to MMOs like Runescape, MapleStory, Second Life. The point is, these services all hinge on user participation, user-to-user interaction, and virtual economies, which sets them apart from your run-of-the-mill chat app that just mines your external link clicks for ads, or shows some display ads. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopets