We recently conducted a survey among college students and found that LINE is their most favorite social media platform. Most interesting when we asked what they would do if there was an earthquake they listed LINE as their preferred type of communication channel after the phone, email and the internet.

1. LINE, Is it really Popular?
Adam Acar
Associate Professor of Communication & Global Business

2. How Do College Students Use LINE?
• ABOUT 6 MONTHS AGO we conducted a
qualitative study with 12 high school
students in Kobe and were surprised to find
out that LINE was the most popular social
media tool among teenagers.
• Last month we conducted a survey at a
public university in Japan and asked 83
college students about their LINE experience
Despite the common view that LINE became popular because the phone
lines were down after the Tohoku earthquake, it is likely that LINE became
popular because
-It was hugely popular among high school students (who have nothing to
do with the phone lines after the quake)
-It is the localization of SKYPE, WECHAT, KAKAO TALK, VIBER which were
already popular in ASIA.
S. Korea had KAKAO TALK, CHINA had WECHAT but Japan had NONE.

3. How do you use LINE?
How do you use LINE?
Don't know
4%
I know but never used
21% Quit
several times a day
43% 1%
occasionally About 60% of
a few times a week
1% college students
14% a few times a month use LINE everyday.
0%
This is more than
Facebook and
almost everyday
16% Twitter
Sample: 83 College
Students who are
registered at a public
university in Japan. 80%
of the respondents
reported having a smart
phone.

4. How do you use LINE?
How do you use LINE?
Don't know
4%
I know but never used
21% Quit
several times a day
43% 1%
occasionally About 60% of
a few times a week
1% college students
14% a few times a month use LINE everyday.
0%
This is more than
Facebook and
almost everyday
16% Twitter
Sample: 83 College
Students who are
registered at a public
university in Japan. 80%
of the respondents
reported having a smart
phone.

5. WHAT IF THERE WAS AN
EARTHQUAKE???
QUESTION: If there was an earthquake with the magnitude of 6.8 that hit this school and
caused some minor damage (presume that you are safe and there's no serious damage
in your building). How would you use the new communication tools at that moment?
Please rank these choices in terms of your priority. Your first choice should be listed as
the 1st and your last choice should be ranked as the 7th.
Total Overall
Item
Score1 Rank
Phone call 464 1
Email 394 2
Internet (search, browse, etc.) 341 3
Line (message, call, etc.) 327 4
Facebook (update, message, search, etc.) 308 5
Twitter (update, message, search, etc.) 283 6
Mixi (update, message, search, etc.) 138 7
Total Respondents: 83
1 Score is a weighted calculation. Items ranked first are valued
higher than the following ranks, the score is the sum of all weighted
rank counts.

6. How do you use other social
networks???
45.00%
40.00%
35.00%
30.00%
25.00%
20.00% Mixi
15.00% Twitter
Facebook
10.00%
LINE
5.00%
0.00%
Sample: 82 College Students who
are registered at a public university
in Japan. 80% of the respondents
reported having a smart phone.

7. How Do They Use LINE?

8. How Do They Use LINE?

9. How Do They Use LINE?

10. How Do They Use LINE?

11. How Do They Use LINE?