Japanese messaging app giant LINE plans to give its 196 million active users access to decentralized apps (dapps) such as games and utilities.
The social network, which is primarily used in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia, will have 30 dapps debuted on its portal by the end of January, with another 150 dapps expected to be added by the end of the first quarter. said Chairman Sam So. The Kaia DLT Foundation's Kaia blockchain hosts the application.
LINE's efforts reflect the growing trend of social media and messaging apps integrating blockchain technology to provide a wide range of services. Telegram, which has over 900 million users, offers games such as Catizen and Hamster Kombat via The Open Network (TON) blockchain. So-called mini-dapps (in-app dapps) also build on the popularity of utility features added to programs such as WeChat.
“Games are the biggest part,” Seo said in an interview with CoinDesk. “The others are social apps, some DeFi, and AI-based chat DAPPs.”
The move to dapps follows the relative failure of early blockchain experiments with NFT functionality. Instagram announced in March 2023 that it would disable the NFT feature it introduced the previous year that allowed people to share NFTs they created or purchased. Reddit's digital collectibles still exist, but the collectible expressions used to animate them were removed in July of this year.
LINE itself has also expanded into NFT, launching an NFT marketplace in Japan in April 2022 and rolling out its own brand of NFT stickers.
“NFTs are too complicated for regular users. The idea was good, but I think the UX and UI need to be improved,” said Seo, referring to the user experience and user interface.
“Previously, users and even creators looked at NFTs not as a tool for ownership, but just as an investment tool. I think there was a kind of mismatch between intent and outcome.”
