• TechCrunch, Tuesday, January 13, 2015 9:30 AM

Messaging is no longer just about messaging. Last year saw the West wake up to the potential of messaging apps — largely thanks to Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp — and 2015 is the year that U.S. apps will become platforms. Few places is that trend illustrated best than Japan, where top chat app Line has just launched its own taxi service. Line Taxi is built into the existing Line app, just like its recently introduced payments service, and its launch pits the company against dominant player Uber and British rival Hailo. The Line service is starting off slowly. 

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