Line Thailand is preparing new consumer and business features and has embraced generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology as part of its plan to offer value-added services to users and target Gen Y in its network.
The company wants to develop a "chat economy" in Thailand.
"Line continues to see growth opportunities in the Thai market, with our engineering development team launching new products that suit local needs based on extensive research to understand consumer behaviours," said Norasit Sitivechvichit, chief operating officer of Line Thailand.
Thailand has Line's second-largest user base, equal to Taiwan's, while Japan is its largest market. Line Japan merged with Yahoo! Japan in an effort to focus on that market.
As of June, Line has 54 million users in Thailand, of which 27% are from Gen Y (aged 28-42). This cohort represents one-third of the population.
Mr Norasit said Line will strengthen the chat economy by developing additional business solutions, reinforcing and promoting new forms of social media, while leveraging AI technology and expanding services to cover new consumer groups to help both users and business partners grow.
"We're developing generative AI in our chat and image capability to serve both consumer and corporate users," he said.
"Gen Y is the most significant group of people of working age. They have the ability to use technology to add economic value and we believe they will be a vital force in an ageing society. We need to keep an eye on and support this group to create growth and drive the economy forward together."
According to Line, 82% of Gen Y uses Line group chat for work, often together with Line call. Around 88% of them use Line on a computer, indicating they use the Line application for work. Moreover, Gen Y has the highest Line usage time, about 100 minutes per day.
Members of Gen Y are also the biggest spenders via Line and their spending is two times higher than those of other generations spending on Line. Females account for most Gen Y spending via Line. Furthermore, the highest use of Line Official Accounts (Line OA) takes place between 8am and noon from Monday to Friday.
"We found that each user has 5-6 work groups. The company will be leveraging research on the use of group chat by kids or friends or family to develop features to improve their productivity and help them manage their communications. We will consider offering no-expire files via chat but this will require extra payment," said Mr Norasit.
In terms of business operations, Line OA remains a widely used tool, serving as the primary Line channel for conducting business of all sizes and all types.
There are around 6 million Line OA accounts in Thailand. Moreover, the Line OA Plus feature also offers a set of tools to help increase the efficiency of Line OA use.
Mr Norasit said this year Line will continue to develop numerous tools under Line OA Plus, such as the planned introduction of "MyCRM" for the users' customer relationship management. It has also improved existing tools, like "MyCustomer" for the users' data collection and data management.
Moreover, Line has launched a beta version of Line OA Store where brands can find tech solution partners. It is also a platform for developers to present their solutions on Line.
According to data analytics firm Creden.co, Line Thailand posted revenue of 6 billion baht in 2022, a 627% increase year-on-year, and recorded a profit of 71.9 million baht, down 27% compared with 2021.
