LINE Corporation, the company behind popular messaging app LINE, is planning to launch a movie app catered to kids in Japan.
The app, called “LINE Kids Doga” is targeted towards Japanese pre-school kids and will be focusing on providing content that is children-friendly.
LINE Kids Doga will launch with 1,500 movies that span different animation franchises. Since we are talking about Japan, we can be sure that there will be content from Pokemon, Doraemon, and other kids-friendly anime. The app will also launch with other shows targeted to kids – such as the Super Sentai and Kamen Rider series. Both of them are aired in Japan during weekends from 7:30am – 8:30am.
There will be 2 pricing plans for the LINE Kids Doga app. A freemium version allows one to watch a movie for 40 minutes everyday. You can extend the number of hours if you ask your LINE friends to give you more minutes.
The other pricing plan is subscription-based – and there are 2 models. Users can pay 500 yen ($5) a month for up to 300 episodes or 400 yen ($4) for unlimited access to all episodes from any single program.
With this app, kids in Japan can have access to shows that they missed on TV. An example will be the Kamen Rider series mentioned earlier in this article, which is only broadcasted during weekends. With LINE Kids Doga, those who missed some episodes will be able to watch them at their leisure.
When LINE Kids Douga launches, it will be first available on iOS devices, followed by an Android version soon. This is just one of the many LINE Corporation products that do not revolve around its main social messaging app. The company is currently the leader in Japan in terms of revenues from both iOS and Google Play stores – and they manage to stand out because of their wide offering of apps – from the core messenger application – to gaming apps and others. I assume that LINE Kids Douga will also appear in other countries, but will have locally tailored content – something that LINE does in all the countries they go to.
Another company with a more familiar name recently also launched a media hub on the iOS. Disney unveiled Disney Movies Anywhere. a platform that allows users to buy Disney, Pixar, and Marvel digital movies online. Once they bought the film, they can stream it on any of their connected device, such as computers, iPhone, and iPad.
Also read: Messaging app LINE launches “Shopping” feature to its Singapore users
