LINE’s monthly active user count in Taiwan has reached a new peak, now totaling 21 million. This figure highlights how deeply LINE has integrated into the daily lives of people in Taiwan, playing an essential role in communication, payments, entertainment, and work. LINE's success stems from its high penetration rate in Taiwan. While Japan has a larger total user base of 92 million, Taiwan has a much higher user density. This means that 9 out of every 10 people in Taiwan use LINE, a unique scenario globally (Business of Apps). Such high usage makes Taiwan a leader in LINE’s global feature adoption. LINE in Taiwan is not merely a communication tool; it has evolved into a multifunctional lifestyle platform embedded in the daily routines of Taiwanese users.
LINE has immense potential as a marketing tool. However, before leveraging LINE for marketing activities, it is crucial to understand its rules and restrictions. This article summarizes the rules and limitations that our technical team has identified through continuous testing and experimentation. Please note that these rules are not fixed and may be adjusted by LINE at any time, so it is essential to stay updated.
As Peter Drucker once said, "If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it." In LINE marketing, understanding and adhering to platform rules is key to success. When designing its marketing platform, LINE established a series of rules to balance user experience and commercial interests. These rules include, but are not limited to, message frequency limitations, content review mechanisms, and privacy protection requirements.
With 21 million monthly active users in Taiwan, LINE has immense influence in the Taiwanese market, making it an ideal platform for marketing campaigns. However, to ensure both effectiveness and compliance, marketers must thoroughly understand LINE's terms and policies. Specifically, LINE has strict reviews for advertising content to protect users from spam messages.
In addition, LINE limits the frequency of marketing messages to avoid overloading users. For instance, according to LINE's policies, there is a limit on the number of advertising messages an account can send per day. Exceeding this limit may result in a temporary suspension of the account. These measures help maintain user satisfaction and the overall health of the platform.
When using LINE for marketing, understanding and complying with these rules and restrictions is critical. As Albert Einstein once said, "Knowledge is limited, but imagination can embrace the entire world." Adequate preparation and understanding of LINE's rules will enable your marketing activities to be more efficient and successful. While LINE offers enormous potential as a marketing tool, marketers must carefully study and adhere to its rules and restrictions. Only then can they fully leverage LINE's marketing value and achieve better results.
When LINE detects behavior it deems irregular (actions beyond normal usage), certain features of your LINE account may be temporarily suspended.
If your account is temporarily restricted, the suspension period may extend if the irregular behavior continues. For example, if you exceed the friend-adding limit and persistently search for friends, LINE will extend the restriction duration.
If LINE issues a warning pop-up and you continue triggering its rules, your account may face permanent restrictions on certain features or may be banned entirely. Once permanently banned, you will no longer be able to log in.
If you make approximately 4 consecutive search errors, it typically occurs when the LINE ID or phone number you are searching for does not have a registered LINE account, or when the user has enabled the “Allow others to add me by ID” option in LINE’s privacy settings. LINE will then display a message, "You have exceeded the allowed number of searches," restricting the search function for approximately 1 hour. Further triggering will extend the restriction time.
In a single day, search errors cannot exceed approximately 50 times. If the total search errors (consecutive or not) exceed 50 times in a day, even entering the correct ID will not work. The first violation results in a soft ban for about 1 hour, while subsequent violations extend the restriction to 1 day.
From the same IP address, the search function can only find about 49 friends within 1 hour.
[Specific Case] If you consecutively add approximately 300 friends, the search function may be restricted temporarily for around 7 days (soft ban).
When you add approximately the 10th friend within 1 hour (consecutively or not), a verification code prompt will appear. To avoid the prompt, limit friend additions to no more than 9 friends per hour. In theory, a single account can add approximately 216 friends per day.
According to user reports, LINE has implemented regional restrictions that prevent LINE accounts created in different regions from adding friends across certain areas. For example, LINE accounts from Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, or Malaysia cannot add LINE friends from Taiwan.
To add friends in Taiwan, the LINE account must be created in the Taiwan region, as per LINE's latest policy.
This restriction only applies to accounts created using phone numbers. LINE accounts registered via Facebook, Google, or other methods are not affected.
[Specific Case] Frequently changing your LINE account name or status message, or creating overly long status messages, may result in search function restrictions.
This is a soft ban, typically lifted after approximately 7 days. However, repeated failures may extend the restriction period.
When logging into the desktop version, you may see a message: “You have been restricted from logging in due to too many failed attempts from the same IP address.”
This is a soft ban and is usually lifted after approximately 1 hour. However, repeated failed attempts may extend the restriction period.
If LINE bans your account, the phone number, device IMEI code, and email address used to register the account will be blacklisted by LINE. This means you can no longer use them to create a LINE account again.
LINE allows forwarding of up to approximately 20 messages. On mobile, messages can be forwarded to up to 10 friends, while on the desktop version, messages can only be forwarded to one friend.
If you remove people who have not joined a LINE group within a certain threshold (undefined), LINE may automatically block your account. For desktop users, LINE will log out and prevent re-login. This soft ban typically lasts for approximately 24 hours.
If you send over approximately 18 messages within 1 minute via a LINE official account, you will receive a warning. Sending over approximately 200 messages within 15 minutes may temporarily restrict that account from further messaging for about 1 hour. However, other operators of the official account remain unaffected.
Exceeding the daily message limit triggers the message: "You have reached the daily limit for messages. Restrictions will be lifted within 24 hours." During this restriction, you can only reply to messages sent in the past 7 days.
Messages must not include URLs leading to spam sites or inappropriate content. Content is subject to LINE's review and cannot include violence, explicit material, discriminatory expressions, encouragement of suicide, self-harm, drug abuse, or other inappropriate content.
If you encounter issues while using LINE, you need to contact LINE for assistance. Below are the methods we have compiled for reaching LINE.
All Methods to Contact LINE