In its ?Q2 Mobile Messaging Report,? GlobalWebIndex found that Japan?s Line rose 99 percent in terms of the percentage of survey respondents who used it while Snapchat?s growth increased 82 percent. Meanwhile, while nearly all chat apps have recorded increases, both WhatsApp and Messenger, with 49 percent and 71 percent increases respectively, are firmly within the top five fastest-growing apps.

?Line might be the fastest-growing app in recent quarters but Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp aren?t far behind and they have much bigger overall audiences,? said Jason Mander, head of trends for GlobalWebIndex in London.

?Also worth considering is the relatively limited appeal of Snapchat,? he said. ?Sure, it?s hugely popular with teens in North America, Australia and Western Europe.

?But its overall footprint is relatively small and it doesn?t have a wider user-base to fall back on should its famously fickle teen users decide that Snapchat is no longer flavor of the month,? he said.

The results suggest that Facebook?s deciding to make Messenger a stand-alone app helped push it ahead of WhatsApp. The two platforms suffered their heaviest growth losses in the Asia-Pacific region, at Line?s expense.

 

Line led in its home market of Japan, as well as in Thailand and Taiwan. Messenger and WhatsApp were also knocked from top spot by Kakao Talk in South Korea, by WeChat in China and by BBM in Indonesia.

 

The survey, an annual investigation of the mobile behavior of 200,000 Internet users aged 16-64 across 33 markets, excluded China. That country?s social networking landscape did not fit with the overall research, given its predominant locally popular platforms and restrictions on Facebook and YouTube.

Line has been gaining with marketers following efforts from the likes of Disney and Maybelline, reflecting how brands are looking to engage with young mobile users in a fun way.

The key benefits for marketers appear to be the app?s custom stickers, a young, loyal user base and a fun atmosphere.

Like Snapchat, WeChat and Viber, Line offers free voice calls, instant text messaging and social networking. Where Line stands apart is with gaming features and a built-in camera app with filters. It also features cartoon characters and stickers that can be used to personalize messages and photos.

While most of the content is free, Line charges for premium stickers.

Disney last year expanded globally a mobile puzzle game app that was published with Line. In late 2013, L?Oreal?s Maybelline brand launched limited-time flash sales of exclusive products in Thailand, working with Line. 

One way for brands to maximize Line?s potential is to take advantage of the app?s built-in camera and numerous features around editing photos.

Together with the popularity of WeChat across Asia-Pacific, the growth posted by Line suggests that Facebook's introduction of stickers and other features which mimic functions available in the region aim to boost engagement in what remains its most challenging market.

?The rise of Line is very much in line with the move towards multi-messaging behaviors,? Mr. Mander said. ?Just as we?ve seen digital consumers happy to maintain accounts across a range of social networks, the same is also true in the mobile messaging landscape.

?People want to use a selection of chat apps rather than limiting themselves to just one,? he said. ?Fostering loyalty among users against such a background will be pretty tricky.?