One of the best things about being a messaging app enthusiast and writing about it is the ability to experience so many different types of digital entertainment in a variety of ways.
Apps like Viber offer stickers; apps such as LINE, WeChat and KakaoTalk offer uniquely Asian outlooks on what a messaging and entertainment platform should be through downloadable content and marketing; and apps such as Tango and Kik offer gaming (and now music in Tango’s case) alongside the core messaging functionality. All in all, these extensions also help create revenue for these various platforms.
Apps based in different regions offer a variety of content for vastly different audiences
The latest App Annie survey of the global app market shows just how much revenue messaging apps have been able to generate. In September 2013 for Android‘s top app by revenue, LINE was the top application, while KakaoTalk took second. Messaging behemoth WhatsApp was rated 6th. LINE also deserves special mention due to the fact that two of its add-on apps, LINE Fortune-telling and LINE Manga, claimed the number 5 and number 7 spots, respectively.
Android is dominated more by these various applications than iPhone, which saw a completely different set of results. LINE was second, just ahead of Skype at fourth.
With the recent release of cross-platform BBM, which is currently available for free and does not yet have an app revenue stream, the competition is higher than ever, as is the fragmentation in the global messaging app war. The question is, whose side are you on?