App Info : Messaging Apps Show Mobile Internet’s Rise in Asia :: EDGE on the Net

SEOUL, South Korea - A handful of smartphone
apps that began as basic instant messaging
services have amassed several hundred million
users in Asia in just a couple of years,
mounting a challenge to the popularity of online
hangouts such as Facebook as they branch into
games, e-commerce, celebrity news and other
areas.
Among them is Line, which has grown to 60
million users, mostly in Asia including at least
29 million in Japan. Its developer estimates the
number of users will reach 100 million by the
end of this year. Also popular is Kakao Talk
with 60 million users, more than half in South
Korea where it originates. Other successful
messengers are Nimbuzz made by an India-
based firm which has amassed 100 million
users including 31 million in Asia, and WeChat
by China-based Tencent, which is nearing 200
million users.
The rapid growth of such applications
underlines that people are increasingly going
online using mobile phones and other wireless
devices. It is a trend that has proved
problematic for the world’s most popular
social networking site. Facebook has lost more
than $50 billion of its market value since its
initial public offering largely due to doubts
about its ability to successfully insert
advertising into the mobile version that a large and growing number of its 955 million users access from smartphones.

Continue Reading Here :
Messaging Apps Show Mobile Internet’s Rise in Asia :: EDGE on the Net