Naver Corp owned mobile messaging and calling app LINE has extended its mobile gaming apps to India, nine months after its competitor WeChat introduced WeChat Games. LINE India head Damandeep Singh Soni told Economic Times that this section was introduced in a bid to increase its active users in the country and also possibly to increase its revenues in turn. Note that games accounted for 60% of the company's $338 million revenues in 2013. While the company hasn't disclosed its current active base in the country, which we feel is a true measure for a mobile messaging app, the company's registered user base has somewhat plateaued in the country: It claims to have 18 million registered users in India, which has remained the same since April this year and is only a modest increase from 15 million registered users in December last year. However, the company still hopes to cross 50 million registered users by the end of this fiscal year. When we checked, we noticed that LINE has a games section under the 'More' tab that offers 16 games right now. These include games like Cookie Run, PokoPoko, LINE Rangers, Pokopang, Disney tsum tsum, Puzzle Bobble and Football League Manager among others. One can tap on any game of their preference to download it from Google Play store and start playing it. There is also a social element to it, wherein the app indicates the games being played by their friends. While the games are free to download, the company monetizes these through in-app purchases. LINE started focusing on the Indian market in July last year,…
