What impression do you get of a woman who says she wants to use KakaoTalk instead of LINE for communicating about club activities?

I’m Saito, a column writer ♪ If you can get in touch with them, either option should be fine, shouldn’t it?

I’ve deleted the KakaoTalk app, but this is Mamiya from Tokyo Unit answering your question. I have to admit, part of me wonders, “KakaoTalk, really—now?” Maybe that’s because LINE has become so dominant. I can understand not wanting to exchange LINE contact information, though. It feels much more connected to your private life. That said, it may create a sense of distance and make the relationship feel transactional, which could cause the other person to lose interest.

I’m a confused man in my 60s. I’ve been seeing a female college student for over a year, but lately it often takes a long time for my LINE messages to show as read. Then, all of a sudden, I’ll get a reply that makes it seem like she had read the message beforehand. Of course, I know how to read messages without marking them as read too, so I’m wondering if that might be what’s happening… I’d like to ask whether there’s another app or tool people use instead of LINE. Am I getting a little off track from Maezawa-san’s point?...汗

Maezawa from the Corporate Planning Office here. > What impression do you get of women who say, “KakaoTalk, not LINE”? I think using KakaoTalk is pretty normal for people who want to avoid having their identity exposed through LINE. If someone asks to use KakaoTalk, I’ll even install it so we can exchange contacts. (笑) That said, over the past year or so, there’s been a rapid increase in the number of people who are fine with using LINE, and more and more women have dozens of unread messages piling up there. It seems the importance of exchanging LINE contacts has dropped to the point where people do it with just about anyone, so perhaps KakaoTalk will gradually fade away as well. We once tried to create an app that could compete with LINE, but there were so many people saying, “Why? Isn’t LINE fine?” that it never came to fruition. I used to think that people who didn’t want their identity exposed would use something other than LINE, but apparently times have changed. Things are changing way too quickly. Still, seeing how many unread messages are piling up on LINE makes me wonder whether LINE’s position has declined. What kind of tools are people starting to use instead? P.S. Some people pointed out that this was drifting away from the original point, so I’ve rewritten the first part of my answer to make it clearer. The related discussion afterward is just what usually happens. (笑)