Line Thailand's sticker business grew to No.1 in the region last year, with Thais sending over 10 billion stickers, or 31 million a day.
Kanop Supamanop, sticker business director of Line Thailand, said last year Line's sticker business in Thailand grew the fastest in the region, followed by Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia.
In terms of the revenue stream stickers generated for the group, Line Japan made the most revenue for the group, followed by Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.
There are 44 million Line users in Thailand, and the sticker business is one of the top three revenue generators. The other two are @Line official accounts for business and the advertising platform.
Line Thailand will continue to focus on expanding payment channels and accepting payments through mobile banking channels, which will start in May.
The company plans to partner with several parties, creators and distribution channels to further the success of its offline-to-online strategy, organising different loyalty programmes to create bonds between sticker users and Line.
The amount of sticker buyers increased 28% over the past year. Line collected data over the New Year holiday and found the amount of paid and free stickers sent from Dec 31, 2018 to Jan 1, 2019 topped 252 million.
On Jan 1, people sent over 157 million stickers over the course of 24 hours, or an average of 6.5 million times per hour, which was 51% higher than average.
These numbers show stickers remain a popular communication tool for Thais.
Stickers save typing time and easily convey emotions in a clear and fun way.
Mr Kanop said the successful growth of Line stickers in the Thai market last year was generated by the expansion of new payment channels such as mobile money refill machines, creating awareness through the Line Store, and conducting promotional activities throughout the year.
The company also supports Line sticker creators and works closely with content creators.
There are 420,000 sticker creators registered in Line Thailand.
He said four sticker trends that have been popular are stickers with specific names, wordplay, capital letters, and pictures of celebrities.
These trends are seen in the high downloads of both official and creators' stickers. The top 10 stickers also reflect the trends.
