Line said its Japan-only news service exceeded 59 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of March 2017, an increase of 13 million since December 2016.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia, MAUs for Line Today (the standalone news app for markets outside Japan) rose to 91 million users, some 31 million higher than December.

Line’s ambition is for its app to become “the biggest smartphone news service in Japan”, which it will achieve by driving “ahead with various new initiatives.”

In Japan, the 59 million figure includes users of: the news tab and pages in the core Line messaging app; its standalone news app; Line news web page; and news accounts provided via the Line account media platform, which has 172 media partners.

“The ability to receive push-delivered news within the Line app that users use every day, as well as catching up with the day’s biggest news in a more visual presentation using pictures and simple titles, has helped fuel Line News’ strong reception,” the company said in a statement.

Line explained the introduction of its news tab in February 2017 and greater focus on news distribution within the core messaging app, which counts over 66 million MAUs, was also “a major influence” in garnering popularity. The most significant growth was seen amongst men aged between 30 to 50 years old, Line added.

The company  unveiled plans at MWC17 earlier this year to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant called Clova, which it aims to make “Asia’s leading cloud AI platform”.