WeChat, Line move to conquer Europe

Asian social networks, already hugely popular on their continent, have set their sights on Europe where they could prove stiff competition for their US rivals. China's WeChat and Japan's Line, which let users make free calls, send instant messages and post funny short videos and photos, take attributes from Facebook, Skype and messaging application WhatsApp and roll them all together.Line's logo is green with a conversation bubble inside, and looks remarkably similar to the icon of WeChat, which began in January 2011. 30% of Line's overall turnover and in July alone, users bought eight million euros ($10.8 million) worth of stickers. The social network has already taken root in other parts of Europe. In Spain, for instance, Line has forged heavyweight partnerships with football clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, brands such as Coca-Cola or tennis star Rafael Nadal. FC Barcelona, for instance, has a home page on the app where it posts photos that has already drawn more than 8.2 million friends. Line even has a permanent office in Spain, where it counts some 15 million users already.