Cool Companies #2 - LINE - A happiness company

This is the second post in my series on cool companies.

LINE株式会社

Unlike the last company I wrote about, there is a good chance you've heard of LINE. The company behind the popular messaging app LINE. Though don't feel bad if you haven't heard of it, as it is primarily popular in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.

I've vaguely known of this company for a long time but it really caught my interest in 2013. Bored with life back home I was traveling and at this time was living in Bangkok, Thailand. I was wandering around the Siam Square shopping center when I came across a coming soon advertisement.

Note: not my photo, and not the particular ad I saw, source for this one here.

I felt completely mind blown when I saw the ad. A company which I assumed was a scrappy internet startup with a cute mobile app ... was running a chain of cafe shops ... what?!

It seemed to go against everything I knew about app/internet based companies. Focus on your core competencies, minimal viable product, and being lean. Yet here we have LINE, a company which is mainly known for a mobile app, running a chain of cafes... and seemingly making a profit selling merchandise, anything from physical stickers to stuffed animals.

But looking back I think I just mis-interpreted the core competency of the company.

An Entertainment Company

I think we have to look at LINE as an entertainment/art company which just so happens to use mobile apps as its main mode of communication. Disney was an animation company but that didn't stop the amusement park from being wildly successful.

Disney wanted to express "imagination" and in the same way I think LINE conveys happiness and cuteness. That is the core of the company and they seem to have an incredibly talented army of animators (another similarity to Disney).

In 2015 LINE sold $270 million in stickers. In addition to selling stickers, the company created a marketplace where independent artists can sell stickers.

LINE then replicated the model of their sticker marketplace and created a completely different app/website called LINE Webtoon. LINE Webtoon offers a mobile and desktop experience for reading web-comics. I tried the mobile app and found it was super easy to find animators, subscribe, and then easily skim through them on the subway. It definitely feels like an app created by a top notch experienced team.

Not surprising considering the company has over 15 websites/apps.

The company even ventures into traditional animation activities including a hit movie in Indonesia.

Development Office

If you're a developer or computer science student LINE welcomes international applicants and primarily works in English. The biggest office is in Fukuoka, Japan. You can see current open positions on the companies StackOverflow profile.

From what I've heard the programming styles which influenced Ruby creator, Yukihiro Matsumoto, are widely popular in Japan and have influenced LINE. I have seen some questions from their tests and many reminded me of those found in computer science classic Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.

For example one of them was a variation of the coin counting problem.

Here is the chain of influence between LISP/SICP style and LINE:

LISP -> Emacs -> Ruby -> Japan -> LINE

Conclusion

I realize I've been all over the place in this analysis, similar to the business model of LINE.

That said I think there is no question that this company has a unique style and aesthetic.