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China may be trying to stomp out Bitcoin mining and Korea may be getting a lot more strict with crypto assets and exchanges, but Japan is leading the way in terms of crypto adoption.
Kodak announced its plans to do an ICO, and it sent its stocks up. Now Japan-based messaging app Line is said to be the latest public company to consider a move into the blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Line had 203 million users as of October 2017 and may have been inspired by Canadian based Kik, that has started its Kin token. Line is an incredible SMS app, it even has its own smart speaker called the Clova Wave. Who actually wants to be texting all the time? Clova Wave allows users to read and send Line messages.
Basically Line wants to explore sending payments via a cryptocurrency on the blockchain. With increasing regulation probable in Asia, digital transactions via apps via cryptocurrencies could be the next breakthrough in payments.
It’s quite unlikely South Korea will actually vote to ban cryptocurrency exchanges. Japan and South Korea are truly the leaders when it comes to investing and supporting the Crypto Singularity.
Having apps amplify their user retention via cryptocurrency adoption makes a lot of sense. Coinbase rose to become one of the top apps in the Apple Store in the U.S. in 2017, and that’s all it is. Top apps that are looking to grow their user base and daily active users, really have to consider the blockchain in 2018.
Kodak stock price up 89% after announcing ICO, showing you the power of crypto even for legacy brands. I think in 2018 we can expect a lot more blockchain initiatives in ICOs and cryptocurrencies whereby apps and tech firms see more than a few good reasons for increased adoption.
In the world of apps it’s no longer good enough to be one-dimension. SMS apps needs to become like WeChat or Snapchat in order to survive and offer multiple unique value propositions. Line is Japan’s largest messaging app that works with multiple partners but there MAUs have been falling; so they have to do anything to keeping Line users coming back to the platform.
The Tokyo-based company basically needs to differentiate its products and services, to compete with the likes of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat. Traditionally this is a Japanese app with a good base in places like Taiwan.
Line’s stickers are in many ways more immersive than Snapchat filters and SMS is basically the new social media. So how SMS apps transition to things like Voice-AI and cryptocurrency payments within their apps is something key to watch. Competing with Facebook’s empire of apps is also proving to be a challenge.
Line has to optimize a digital means of exchange that as Tech Crunch puts it would be “attention-based tokens” on the blockchain, to reward users for using the messenger. Ideally as a user you’d want to see an app with a cryptocurrency exchange inside it that’s also an SMS app; and I’m sure before 2020 we’ll have such apps. A good candidate would be Amazon’s forthcoming “Anytime” app.
Line could partner with South Korean bitcoin exchange Upbit. With Kodak and Line entering the fray of the Crypto Singularity, what other brands will follow in 2018?
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