Line, the mobile messenger established by South Korean internet giant Naver, was the second-most profitable app in the world in 2016, a new year-end report from Sensor Tower showed Monday.

According to the mobile app marketing intelligence firm, global music streaming app Spotify generated the highest revenue in the nongame app category for the Apple App Store and the Google Play app store combined.

Line came in second, followed by US-based movie and television show streaming service Netflix, online dating app Tinder and internet radio app Pandora, Sensor Tower said.


On the Apple App Store, Spotify ranked first in terms of revenue, followed by Netflix and Line. On Google Play, however, Line ranked first thanks to the “sales of its stickers and other purchasable items,” followed by Tinder and Pandora.

The US market research company also highlighted the rise of Line Manga, the online comic reader and sales platform operated by Line, which ranked No. 7 in overall revenue for both app stores combined.

“The real standout we saw across all three rankings (overall, Apple App Store and Google Play), however, was Line Manga, the eponymous chat platform’s comic reader/storefront, which launched in late 2015 and has been a growing source of revenue for the company ever since,” Sensor Tower said.

The most-downloaded app of 2016 overall on both Apple and Google’s app stores was Facebook, followed by Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat. With the exception of Snapchat, all of the top five apps are owned by US social networking giant Facebook.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)