BBC to share breaking news with chat app Line's 400m worldwide users
BBC News has announced that its online content will be accessible through mobile messaging platform Line, making the corporation the first international news organisation to have an official account on the app.
A screenshot of BBC on Line
The Line app, available on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry devices, will provide users access to the latest breaking news via text, short video clips, and audio.
The service, which provides free calls for users, will see news delivered to users who add the ‘@BBCNews’ account as a friend.
Users in Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, and the United States, will have access to the news stream from the UK public broadcaster.
James Montgomery, director of technology and digital for BBC world service group, said: “Instant messaging services are rapidly establishing themselves as the important and affordable social media platforms for the mobile age.
“With mobile now accounting for the majority of our digital traffic, we believe there is great potential to distribute BBC News via these apps, to reach and engage audiences that want to stay connected , as well as to share news stories, pictures and videos in the most seamless way possible.
“Our global ambition remains the provision of trusted, quality content to audiences worldwide, whenever and wherever they want it.”
The partnership with Line complements the BBC’s growing social media presence which saw it as the most shared News brand on Twitter.
This follows a report from comScore which claimed that the BBC has 73.4m unique browsers per month, taking it to just 200,000 behind online news leader, CNN.