NHN Japan is planning to expand its free-calling and free-messaging app Line’s reach in the US to compete with Facebook and Twitter.
The company plans to establish a US marketing team and sign content delivery deals with local firms.
NHN Japan chief strategy and marketing officer, Jun Masuda, told Bloomberg that the company is still at an investment phase as it targets as many as 1 billion customers globally.
"This year, we want to capture North America. We’re not focused on being in the black. It isn’t time to cash in yet," Masuda said.
NHN Japan said Line, which is used in more than 230 countries globally, enables users to make free calls and send messages to one another, both nationally and internationally, regardless of which mobile network provider they use.
The app was first introduced in June 2011 and reached the 100 million-user mark in last year.
