Join and meet people now

The two companies first worked together when Line licensed Mickey Mouse for a sticker pack in More than 50 other packs have followed, featuring characters from Disney cartoons and Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars classics. The company entered gaming in July ; its first four titles included Line Pop, a game which is eerily similar to Bejeweled or Candy Crush Saga except that it involves matching tiny Line-character heads instead of gems or sweets. For Line, the challenge is to keep the hits coming:

While the general look of the social media landscape in Japan in hasn’t changed much since ’s version of this article, one major addition to the game is photo-sharing app is slowly gaining traction among young people in Japan, especially among girls.

Possibly this year, annual sales of digital comics may surpass that of paper for the first time, according to a report released by the Tokyo-based Research Institute for Publications, which follows the publishing industry. If it happens, it would be a milestone for an industry whose manga culture has been widely treasured and where book stores around the country regularly showcase hundreds of paper comics on their shelves. The answer is yes to both. Thanks to smartphones, many people have changed how they read manga, with a myriad of e-comics just a few taps away on their handsets without the need to carry print versions.

The rise of digital manga is also changing the landscape of the traditionally closed manga businesses as well. Seeing growth potential, many firms, not only existing publishing houses that dominated the era of paper comics but also tech and overseas players, have jumped into the market with manga apps. In the meantime, people in the industry say the paper market is likely to keep shrinking and its future remains uncertain. Some are seriously concerned about the fate of manga magazines, which have long served as mediums to introduce new titles, as their role is being taken over by smartphones.

Rise of digital, fall of paper The Research Institute for Publications reports that sales of digital manga books excluding magazines jumped If the digital and paper keep the same growth and drop rates this year, e-comics will exceed their paper counterparts, the research body estimates. The overall manga market including digital and paper comics and magazines showed a 0. Traditional print magazines, such as the weekly Shonen Jump and Shonen Magazine, have regularly published the chapters of various manga series and for a long time have been a venue where authors could introduce their works to the public.