Posted on 03/01/2015 8:14:01 PM PST by doug from upland
In Asia, emojis and stickers on messaging apps are big, and it's common for people -- even adults -- to pay extra so they can punctuate their text messages with bears or bunnies. Now the Line messaging app says Americans are getting in on the sticker phenomenon too.
Japan's Line Corp., which is trying to popularize its messaging app in the U.S., amid tough competition, launched a contest for artists to design new stickers, with people voting for winners.
Line says the U.S.-focused contest brought in more than 10,000 sticker submissions and 500 million votes since it was launched in late September, in partnership with GIF search engine and artist community Giphy. (Giphy says it's still processing details on the huge voting number -- for example, how many repeat voters there were. It says it blocked bots.)
And it remains to be seen how many people will sign up for Line through the sticker contest, since voting has taken place on the web and migrates to Line next month, ahead of the winner's announcement on Dec. 23. (A couple of spazzy animated cats are among the favorites.)
But Line, which emphasizes stickers to differentiate itself from other messaging apps, says the response exceeded its expectations.
"It shows the popularity of emojis and stickers here in the U.S., although they originated in Japan," said Jeanie Han, Line CEO Euro-Americas.
(Excerpt) Read more at adage.com ...
Do they have one that says “FUBO”?
Can he call Huan Hong Tulow if Long Dong is hung up?
It makes it SOOOO easy to search out information on them on the internet.
Sorry —— line.me is the name of the company
Long Dong or Hung Lo?
HUUUUUuuuge in Japan.
Numerous people are telling me to sign up.
I think that it’s in Asia where 80% of the sign-ups are.
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