LINE FRIENDS Chinese mainland the last store to close

Reporter | Wei Xianghui

Edit | Ya Han Xiang

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At 10:00 p.m. on February 10, 2022, the international creative studio LINE FRIENDS Chengdu Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Store will be officially closed. This is also the last offline store Chinese mainland LINE FRIENDS.

As a popular Internet celebrity punch card, LINE FRIENDS offline stores were once the traffic entrance of the brand. For example, the LINE FRIENDS flagship store on Huaihai Road in Shanghai, which officially opened in November 2016, is the first boutique in Shanghai to feature Brown Bear's sister, CHOCO. The shop has nearly 800 square meters on three floors and houses the LINE FRIENDS Cafe. Choco sitting on the eaves outside the store is quite eye-catching, and once attracted many consumers to take photos and shop. In May 2021, the store has been announced to be closed.

LINE FRIENDS introduced that the store closure initiative is the overall strategic need from 2020. In fact, in recent years, line FRIENDS' physical store business has been growing weakly. Zhou Jie, senior assistant director of Cushman & Wakefield's Guangzhou Commercial Real Estate Department, once analyzed: "Line FRIENDS experience form is single, only providing IP cartoon image scene photo punching, lack of interactivity; while peripheral products are simple, the update frequency is slow and lack of innovation, resulting in weak repurchase rate and user stickiness." ”

Image source: brand official website

LINE FRIENDS originated from the mobile chat tool "Line" launched by the Japanese subsidiary of South Korean Internet company NHN, and then derived related meme IP, game operation and other businesses, "Brown Bear", "Keni Rabbit" and "Sally" are its representative IP. In July 2014, LINE China's operations were suspended, and the development of its communications, social and gaming business was blocked. A few months later, LINE FRIENDS began its offline store business. At its peak, the brand operated 12 stores in China.

After the closure of offline stores, LINE FRIENDS shifted its focus to online retail and IP licensing. Relatively speaking, the profit margin of IP licensing is relatively high, and LINE FRIENDS will reduce its operating cost pressure after cutting off such an asset-heavy business as physical stores.

Li Yiyong, General Manager of LINE FRIENDS China, introduced at the 2021 China Licensors Conference that in the first half of 2021, LINE FRIENDS' overall business in the Chinese market achieved profitable growth, with e-commerce sales increasing by 30% year-on-year and licensing business revenue increasing by 20% year-on-year.

"While continuing to lay out online communication channels, offline space is still an important base for brands to have direct contact with consumers." LINE FRIENDS revealed that offline will carry out multi-format offline experience spaces such as theme hotels, catering, small retail stores, and unmanned retail, providing fans with diversified interactive experiences such as theme exhibitions, pop-up mobs, and parties. Experience scenes from different fields such as art and humanities, exquisite camping and other interactive experience spaces.

In 2022, LINE FRIENDS' focus also includes the development of the maternal and infant market. Based on the market potential of some fan groups gradually entering the family and the future mother and baby market. LINE FRIENDS officially announced its entry into the mother and baby market in 2021, and continued to launch a series of pictures of mother and baby themes to expand licensing cooperation. At the same time, offline theme children's parks will also be landed.

In fact, when LINE FRIENDS became popular Chinese mainland, there was still a lack of such a fresh Japanese IP image in the market, and people still saw Doraemon or Hello Kitty. But with the passage of time, more and more new IPs have emerged, further squeezing the living space of LINE FRIENDS.

In addition, people's preferences in the era of social networking have also changed rapidly, and last month everyone was still cheering for Lingna Belle of Disneyland, and now they are lining up to buy the ice pier of the Beijing Winter Olympics mascot. Several images of LINE FRIENDS were originally just memes of communication software, and in the absence of a strong IP system and story background support, it was sooner or later.