EBA Communications

Talk whenever you want – LINE puts your favourite celebrities in the palm of your hand!
LINE introduces Official Accounts, an exciting new feature that enables users to interact directly with their favourite celebrities A host of popular celebrities are taking part, including 丁噹 (Della), 嚴爵 (Yen-j), 安心亞 (Amber An), and Wonder Girls. Now, users' communications experiences are even more fun and entertaining!
14 Jun 2012
Hong Kong, 14 June 2012 – LINE, the world's leading free calling and messaging service, has today launched a fun-packed new feature, Official Accounts, which enables users to get to befriend their favourite celebrities and communicate with them on LINE. The feature is available on LINE version 2.2.0 or higher. Users just need to select the 'Official Accounts' option in the 'add friends' menu to link up with the hottest celebrities and famous TV personalities. Celebrities who are participating include 安心亞 Amber An (LINE ID: #amberan), 丁噹 Della (#della), 嚴爵 Yen-j (#yenj), 大學生了沒 (#university), and Korean stars like CNBLUE (#cnbluehk), FTISLAND (#ftislandhk), Lee Min-ho (#leeminhohk), miss A (#missa), Wonder Girls (#wondergirls), ZE:A (#zealinehongkong), 2AM (#2amlinehk) and 2PM (#2pmlinehk). Once added as friends, LINE users can follow the celebrities' messages, pictures and even video and audio clips. Not only can users follow updates from the celebrities, they can also interact with them in real-time during 'On Air Mode', when celebrities can read and respond to messages (including emoji and stickers) from users. Users can see when the stars are 'on air' when the red 'ON' icon appears next to the name of the celebrity who is online. This exciting communication feature saw its first official launch in Japan. One of the participating artists, Becky, now has over 1,190,000 friends (as of June, 13^th), and the number is increasing all the time. "The chance to communicate with popular celebrities on LINE is one of the clearest examples of the many advantages the app offers to our users, enabling them to form a bond with their favourite artists and TV figures," said Cha Ji-eun (車知恩), senior manager from LINE Business Office of NHN Corp. "Beyond simple conversation, users can share the fun and excitement of having a genuine celebrity as one of their LINE friends, illustrating the entertainment value of the app in addition to its usefulness as a communication tool," she added. Plans are in place for more celebrities to be added to the Official Accounts feature, including K-POP stars and other entertainers. Local celebrities will communicate with their fans in traditional Chinese and it is planned for other Korean stars to communicate in English. Users are also able to choose to turn off push notifications when they do not want to be disturbed by messages, just like when they're chatting to any other contact. Users can also benefit from the latest version of LINE, 2.4.0, launched on 5^th June. The latest version features an improved User Interface and exciting features such as a new shortcut that allows users to move between LINE Card and LINE Camera by using the [+] button in the chat room. For more information about LINE, please visit its official website http://line.naver.jp/en/. # # # Useful Links: http://www.nhncorp.com/nhnen/index.nhn About LINE LINE is a smartphone app which allows users to enjoy free calls and messages to one another, both nationally and internationally, regardless of which mobile network provide they are using. Launched in June 2011 by NHN, LINE has more than 28 million subscribers worldwide. It has also been ranked no. 1 in the free app category in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Macau, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Israel, Switzerland and Turkey. LINE carries various unique features such as 'Translations Bots', an instant and immediate translation services, 'Shake it', a fun way of exchanging ids and 'Emoji/Stickers/Emoticons'. For more information: http://line.naver.jp/en/. About NHN Corporation and NHN Japan NHN Corporation is Korea's premier Internet company, operating the nation's top search portal Naver (www.naver.com), the leading online game portal Hangame (www.hangame.com), the nation's largest children's portal Jr. Naver (jr.naver.com), Korea's the first online donation portal Happybean (happybean.naver.com) and microblog service Me2DAY (http://me2day.net/).Starting from the two business pillars of search and games, NHN has rolled out a wide range of innovative and convenient online services that enable people to enjoy their lives. NHN Japan is a leading internet company, providing many services including: games; search/portals; media, and was merged with Naver Japan Corporation and livedoor Co., Ltd. in January 2012 (http://www.naver.jp). LINE is one of the services that NHN Japan produced, launched, and operates. While NHN Japan develops and enhances the service features of LINE, NHN Corp. provides all other offerings related to the business development of LINE, ranging from marketing and promotion to investment in technical support. For more information visit: http://www.nhncorp.com/nhnen/index.nhn. Copyright: © 2012 NHN Corporation. All rights reserved. NHN, LINE logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NHN Corporation in Korea and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice. Issued on behalf of NHN Corporation by EBA Communications For further information please contact: Adam Barty / Raymond Woo (EBA): (+852) 2537 8022 (email: adam.barty@ebacomms.com / raymond.woo@ebacomms.com)