S&P 500
1649.60
-0.91 -0.06%
Dow Indu
15303.10
+8.60 +0.06%
Nasdaq
3458.89
-0.53 -0.02%
Crude Oil
94.15
-0.41 -0.44%
Gold
1386.35
-2.79 -0.20%
Euro
1.29274
+0.00015 +0.01%
US Dollar
83.640
-0.106 -0.14%
Weak

Market Commentary and Intraday News

Messaging apps show mobile Internet's rise in Asia

249 days ago

(AP:SEOUL, South Korea) A handful of smartphone apps that began as basic instant messaging services have amassed several hundred million users in Asia in just a couple of years, mounting a challenge to the popularity of online hangouts such as Facebook as they branch into games, e-commerce, celebrity news and other areas.

Among them is Line, which has grown to 60 million users, mostly in Asia including at least 29 million in Japan. Its developer estimates the number of users will reach 100 million by the end of this year.

The rapid growth of such applications underlines that people are increasingly going online using mobile phones and other wireless devices. It is a trend that has proved problematic for the world's most popular social networking site.


Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

INO.com on Facebook INO.com MarketClub on Twitter INO.com YouTube

© Copyright INO.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.