0805-Q&A: Line Expands in India

By Jai Krishna

Line Corp.

 

Line’s Global Chief of Strategy and Marketing Jun Masuda

Japan’s Line Corp. is targeting about a half a billion youngsters in India whose lives revolve around their smartphones and are always on the lookout for smarter and affordable ways to communicate with their peers.

Line was born in the communications breakdown after Japan’s tsunami and earthquake and has expanded worldwide,as users became drawn to features like virtual stickers that bring some humor to instant messages.

Line was developed by NHN Japan Corp., the unit of Seoul-based NHN Corp., which operates South Korea’s dominant search engine called Naver. Line’s messaging app has already drawn 200 million users since its launch, the company said Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal spoke with Jun Masuda, Line’s chief strategy and marketing officer, who says the company aims to be an Asian alternative to popular U.S.-based social networking services such as Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and photo sharing services Instagram, now part of Facebook.  Edited Excerpts:

WSJ: Give us an update on your business and how many users you are targeting.

Mr. Masuda: We already have 200 million users. We would like to reach 500 million to 1 billion users, if possible, and as soon as possible.  I think we can easily reach 300 million users (by end of March 2014). What we are talking about is the registered number of users. Downloads are many and we don’t count that. Out of the total number of users 30% comes from Japan and the rest is from outside with the majority coming from Taiwan, Thailand, Spain and Indonesia.

WSJ: How will Line compete in markets where there are already powerful incumbents in the messaging category? There’s Tencent’s WeChat in China and KakaoTalk in South Korea.

Mr. Masuda: Tencent in China and KakaoTalk in South Korea are both very strong in their own countries. Of course, like us, they are also going to international markets, but I think we have been able to fare much better. We have our maximum users outside Japan, whereas the other two, their internal domestic users are 70% and for us, it is 30% .  Wherever we go, we localize the content.

WSJ: How is Line doing in India? Is India still a nascent market for messaging apps given that smartphone penetration is still relatively low?

Mr. Masuda: We officially launched in India on July 1 and we already gained five million users only in three weeks.  India is one of the largest mobile-phone markets. That’s why I think it’s a pretty good market to be in. That’s why we thought we would like to enter the Indian market and so far, I can say that we are successful.

WSJ: You have been expanding the services that you offer in addition to basic instant messaging – like games and news. Is that how Line wants to differentiate itself from WeChat and WhatsApp?

Mr. Masuda: Our platform is not about being a simple messenging platform. We have a lot of other services which we offer, and it is built in within the platform. Even in India we would like to offer games and news and many other features. We have already launched games in the local Indian languages.

WSJ: Where are you looking at next in terms of expansion?

Mr. Masuda: There are other countries we want to expand next like Africa, Russia, Middle East, and South America.

WSJ: Is Line profitable? If not, how will you make it profitable?

Mr. Masuda: We haven’t publicly published our financials. For the January-March quarter, we had 5.8 billion yen ($58.1 million) in sales. This was the first time we were profitable, before that we weren’t. Whatever we get, we have reinvested again in the company to get more users.

WSJ: What will be Line’s major sources of revenue?

Mr. Masuda: There are three revenue streams. One is we sell (virtual) stickers and then we sell game items. And third is we get money from the corporations – we have sponsored accounts. When a service like Line becomes very popular, then there are lots of companies, lots of professionals, there are lots of artists who would like to make use of that. They want to have their official accounts so that they can reach their fans, their users and consumers. For that we have official accounts, they pay us to have accounts. We sell that space for a monthly subscription fee of about 3.5 million yen per month. We have about 100 companies that have such accounts globally.

WSJ: Your strategy is being an Asian alternative to Facebook, how is that strategy panning out?

Mr. Masuda: Facebook and Line are like two sides of the same coin, that’s how I see it. Facebook is an open space where you can meet anybody and everybody. But it is a trend now, that almost all the users who have been on social networks, they are kind of tired of it. The reason is because it is too open. Line is the other side of the coin, it is similar but closed. Line is about being connected to people whom you are connected on a daily basis, and you are trying to have better relations. These are the people who matter in your life and the Line objective is to have a happier, richer communication with those set of people.

Follow Jai on Twitter @jaikrishna

0731-How an Introvert Can Be Happier: Act Like an Extrovert

Andrew Roberts

Both introverts and extroverts can be adept at public speaking. But whereas an extrovert might afterward want to interact with others in a large group, introverts might feel the need for self-reflection and time alone, such as by taking a walk.

Extroverts, those outgoing, gregarious types who wear their personalities on their sleeve, are generally happier, studies show. Some research also has found that introverts, who are more withdrawn in nature, will feel a greater sense of happiness if they act extroverted.

Experts aren't entirely sure why behaving like an extrovert makes people feel better. One theory is that being talkative and engaging influences how people respond to you, especially if that response is positive. Others speculate that people get more satisfaction when they express their core self and opinions. Another possibility: Happiness might come simply from having successfully completed a goal, such as giving a speech.

"If you're introverted and act extroverted, you will be happier. It doesn't matter who you are, it's all about what you do," said William Fleeson, a psychology professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

New research suggests that extroverts tend to be happier, and there's a way to get a taste of those feel-good vibes even if you aren't the outgoing type. Your Health's Sumathi Reddy and Carleton University's John Zelenski explain. Photo: Getty Images.

Other studies have shown that extroverts are more motivated than introverts. Researchers believe this is due in part to extroverts' greater sensitivity to dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a big role in behavior driven by rewards.

Clark Powell considers himself an introvert, but his job as vice president of a media relations and multimedia production firm means he often must act out of character. "My job requires me to be on TV…and to do media training and presentations in front of large groups of people, as painful as that can be sometimes," said the 46-year-old in Columbia, Ohio. Though he may dread making a presentation, he says he is exhilarated afterward. "I do feel a sense of relief and elation, but I don't know if that's because of the experience or because the experience is over," he said.

Mr. Powell disagrees with research findings that extroverts are happier and more motivated. While extroverts might derive happiness through feedback from others, Mr. Powell says his sources of pleasure include learning new things and reading a good book. "I may not share my happiness as willingly as other people…but I consider myself just as happy and I'm extremely motivated to learn and grow as an individual."

Whether a person is an extrovert or introvert is one of the big five traits commonly used by psychologists to classify personalities. (The others are openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism.) Researchers say people generally fall somewhere in the middle, with attributes of both types. Extroverts tend to thrive off of interaction with other people. Introverts are typically more reserved, but not necessarily shy. They prefer solitary behavior or engaging in small groups.

Researchers say genetics may play a large role in whether we are more extroverted or introverted. Social experiences, especially those outside of the family environment, are also important, particularly as a child and young adult when the connectivity between neurons is being established.

Dr. Fleeson, of Wake Forest University, reported in a 2012 article in the Journal of Personality the results of an experiment that found introverts experience greater levels of happiness when they act more extroverted. In the weeklong study, researchers followed 85 people who recorded on Palm Pilots how extroverted they were acting and how happy they were feeling. Other studies of introvert behavior have reached similar conclusions.

So why don't introverts act like extroverts more often? John Zelenski, a psychologist at Carleton University in Ottawa, and fellow researchers probed that question in an April article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

A series of studies, which included more than 600 college students, found that introverts misjudge how they would feel after acting extroverted. They often predicted feelings of anxiety and embarrassment, which never transpired.

"Introverts kind of underestimate how much fun it will be to act extroverted," said Dr. Zelenski. "You don't think you want to go to a party and then go and have a great time." Dr. Zelenski and other researchers also considered whether people acting in a way that goes against their natural disposition might wear themselves out. In two studies, a total of about 150 college students were instructed to behave in an extroverted or introverted manner during a group activity. Questionnaires and cognitive tests measured how much mental energy was depleted.

"We didn't find a lot of evidence for…the idea that acting like an extrovert would wear out introverts," said Dr. Zelenski. However, he said: "We found acting like an introvert tended to wear out extroverts," who performed worse on cognitive tests.

Still, Brian Little a psychology professor at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, believes that acting out of character can take a physiological toll on the nervous and immune systems. Dr. Little says he's an introvert who often has to engage in extroverted behavior, such as making speeches, in order to advance his work. Afterward, Dr. Little says he often needs to emotionally recharge.

While extroverts might benefit from interacting with others during a break at a conference, Dr. Little prefers to go for walk if he has time. If not, he might hide in the restroom. "As an introvert acting as an extrovert I need to escape from the vicissitudes of overstimulating colleagues," he said.

Dr. Little says some of his students are starting a study to explore the cost of acting out of character. "I'm quite confident that we can show that going against your traits is going to use up resources," such as glucose, he said. "Anything that requires concentration is going to deplete glucose resources," he said.

Researchers say genetic differences also can account for why introverts don't seek to act extroverted. That's because introverts don't get the payoff for that behavior that extroverts do, in the form of heightened sensitivity to the neurotransmitter dopamine. The reasons this occurs aren't fully understood, says Richard Depue, a professor of neuroscience in the department of human development at Cornell University. The bottom line: Extroverts are wired to act more motivated to get that reward.

Luke Smillie, a senior lecturer of psychology at the University of Melbourne in Australia, notes that most studies of introverts and extroverts take place in the U.S. and other western countries where extroversion is often perceived to be more valuable. "The question is, would you observe the same effects in cultures that didn't have this sort of value placed on being outgoing and assertive and so forth?" he said.

"We live in a culture that very much subscribes to the extrovert ideal of being bold and assertive," said Susan Cain, a former corporate lawyer who wrote a book last year called "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking," which argues that introverts are unfairly maligned. Rather than trying to get introverts to act more extroverted, she argues that society should be drawing on their natural strengths, which can include being a good listener and working creatively.

Write to Sumathi Reddy at sumathi.reddy@wsj.com

0730-Why Multitasking Blocks Your Best Ideas

By Sue Shellenbarger

Dana Brownlee figured out how to add more time for “aha” moments into her busy day.

Many people get their best ideas at unpredictable times, as this week’s Work & Family column shows – in the bathtub, driving home or sipping whiskey late at night in the office.

But those who juggle numerous work and family roles face an added obstacle, research shows: All the multitasking they do tends to block out new ideas.

Managing multiple tasks at the same time requires a lot of working memory and “executive control” – the ability to direct and focus your attention, says a 2010 study in the journal Intelligence. But working memory and the ability to focus actually work against the cognitive processes that generate light-bulb moments, says a 2012 study at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“Too much focus can actually harm creative problem-solving,” preventing the diffuse, open thinking required to come up with new approaches and novel connections, the study says. Multitaskers may have to work harder than others to block out time for the daydreaming, exercise or mind-wandering that generate “aha moments,” the research suggests.

Dana Brownlee, a mother of two preschoolers and a corporate trainer and speaker, gets many of her best ideas jogging, showering or sleeping. Last fall, she knew she needed a light-bulb moment. She was feeling overwhelmed by all her roles – “wife, mother, entrepreneur, friend, sister, keynote speaker, consultant, corporate trainer, etc.,” says Ms. Brownlee, president of Professonalism Matters.

The solution was probably lurking in her subconscious mind, Ms. Brownlee says, but it didn’t emerge until she broke away to take a run. She frequently made contracts with her clients, defining boundaries and responsibilities, she says. And “as I started my jog, it just hit me almost like a bolt of lightning,” she says: “Stop and make a contract with yourself. Decide what you will do and what you won’t do, and let everything else go,” she says. She ran home and jotted down a five-point list of priorities that have guided her ever since, including “family trumps work” and “don’t sweat the small stuff.”

The list, which she calls “the Mommy Contract,” has helped her stick to a principle she believes in, she says: “First, decide what’s important. Then, live a life that reflects that.” Since she wrote it, she has been picking up her children, ages 4 and 18 months, from school almost every day; spending weekends with her family instead of running errands, and taking family vacation time every other month.

Readers, when or where do you get your best ideas? Does your juggle help or hinder your creativity?

0729-One More Reason to Put Down That Smartphone

By Anita Hofschneider

Getty Images

Feeling shy in a group meeting? Your smartphone may be to blame.

An unpublished paper out of Harvard Business School suggests that using small gadgets makes people less assertive. Those who use larger gadgets come across as more assertive.

When people use smaller devices, their posture contracts, increasing stress and decreasing testosterone levels, say researchers Maarten Bos and Amy Cuddy of Harvard Business School. The inverse is true when people use large desktop computers, which force users to assume a more open posture. And the effect continues even after the device is put away or the user logs off.

Hunching over a smartphone, Bos and Cuddy found, affects behavior even after users put the device away, causing them to be less likely to take risks immediately afterward.

The researchers randomly assigned 75 participants an iPod Touch, an iPad, a MacBook Pro laptop or an iMac desktop computer. Then they asked participants to take a survey and play a gambling game on their assigned device.

Afterward, participants were told they could either wait for the researcher to return or fetch the researcher from the front desk.

Nearly all of those (94%) who had been using an iMac took the initiative to seek out the researcher, compared to just half (50%) of those using an iPod Touch.

Overall, individuals’ assertiveness grew steadily with the size of the device. Just over 70% of those using an iPad sought out the researcher compared to 88% of those who’d been assigned the larger laptop.

Those with larger devices also sat and waited for less time before seeking out the researcher.

“I have never in my life seen such a stabilized effect,” said Bos, noting that in general, the results from behavioral research tend to be messy.

It’s not the first time academics have examined the link between posture and workplace behavior. A recent study conducted by scholars from Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley suggested that having a bigger desk might embolden workers to take more risks – but also may correlate with greater dishonesty.

Bos and Cuddy did not control for gender and were not always able to observe participants’ postures during the study, but Bos says he hopes the initial results will help people be more aware of the effect of devices on body language and posture. He says further studies are needed.

And that may be reason alone to put down a gadget before heading into an important meeting or interview.

0726-Google’s New $35 Chromecast Device Streams to TVs

By Amir Efrati and Greg Bensinger

Google unveiled a device to help people connect their TVs to mobile devices so that they can view and listen to Web content on the biggest screen in their homes.

The two-inch device, called Chromecast, looks like a thumb drive and is based on Google’s ChromeOS software. The device, available today for $35 at Bestbuy.com Amazon.com and the Google Play store, also works with Apple mobile devices.

Chromecast will allow people to select YouTube video content using their Web-connected tablet, for instance, and have it play on their television. It echoes similar technology from Apple called Airplay and from Microsoft called Smartglass.

Chromecast plugs into the HDMI port of a television and prompts a person’s mobile device to download a Chromecast app and then connect the device to a Wi-Fi network.

The device works with Android smartphones, Chrome-powered laptops and even Apple’s iPad and iPhone. “We have a multi-platform approach…and we go where the users are,” said Google’s chief of Chrome and Android, Sundar Pichai, in an interview at an event in San Francisco.

Chromecast is the latest example of Google flexing its hardware-manufacturing muscle. Pichai said the company worked with a hardware maker in Taiwan to build the device, which he said he hopes will be embedded within new TVs and other devices in the future. Earlier this year Google introduced a a ChromeOS-based laptop designed and manufactured with an undisclosed Asian partner, and in 2014 it will release its Google Glass wearable-computing device.

Chromecast represents another effort by Google to become a bigger fixture in people’s living rooms, one of the growing battlegrounds in consumer tech. Amazon.com is working on a set-top box for streaming video and Apple too is developing television technology, according to people familiar with the companies’ plans.

Google’s past TV efforts have had some challenges. GoogleTV, software that is embedded in some TVs and devices that connect to televisions, was released in 2010 but failed to gain much traction. Pichai on Wednesday said new Google TV devices, which help people search and watch both cable TV and Web connect, will be released in the future.

Google’s Android unit also has been working on developing a videogame console, people familiar with the matter have said.

Watch a video with WSJ’s Amir Efrati discussing the new Chromcast device:

• Chromecast, 
• Google

0725-Anti-theft function to be featured in smartphones in Korea?

 Smartphone robbery has become a big social issue in some developed countries. There is criticism over the lack of services from the mobile service providers for dealing with stolen/lost smartphones. With the recent efforts in the US between the government and private companies to resolve this issue, many are wondering if the solution will make its way to Korea.

In the US, Samsung will put in a function that makes misplaced phones basically useless, as early as within this month. It’s a ‘kill switch’ that completely cuts off a misplaced phone’s functions, even if the owner doesn’t know its location. Samsung is currently under discussions with the government, law enforcement authorities, major manufacturers and mobile service providers to put the kill switch function inside commercial smartphones.

The kill switch acts as a remote, and the manufacturer, carrier or government send a command to a misplaced phone that will make it useless. When properly functioned, the thief will not be able to recover the phone even if he hacks the software or changes the SIM.

Hopefully, this will stop the trade of stolen devices as they will become useless when stolen. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and District Attorney of San Francisco George Gascon requested Google, Motorola, Samsung, Microsoft and other smartphone OS/device manufacturers to include the kill switch function on their phones.

▲ With smartphone robberies becoming a big social issue in Korea and overseas, there is a lot of attention on whether the government will implement kill switches on smartphones

Samsung, the biggest Android phone manufacturer, expressed its will to include the kill switch function in its phones starting as early as this month. LG is also developing such technology, but it’s not yet finished, and the release date remains unrevealed.

The kill switch will likely embedded on devices through free software downloads or system updates, not with the release of separate devices. The main agreement with the judges, politicians and ‘Secure Our Smartphones’, a consumer group established to deal with smartphone crimes, was that the added function would come without any additional fees for the consumer.

A Samsung official commented today regarding the inclusion of kill switch functionality in US phones, “We will not charge any extra fees for the function. We don’t have confirmed release dates.”

Although the manufacturers haven’t discussed the inclusion of the function in areas outside the US, now is the right time to consider its possibilities in Korea. The number phones that were reported lost but was never found reach 940,000 on all three carriers combined. Compared to 2009, the number of cellphone robberies increased by 457.4%.

Currently, in Korea, if the user reports his lost phone to his carrier, the device becomes unavailable for use in the country. However, this has lead to an increase in international trade of the stolen smartphones. Even if the criminals cannot use the phones themselves, they can sell it overseas for a lot of money, so they go on conducting smartphone robberies.


For the manufacturers to include the kill switch functionality in smartphones, an agreement between the government, law enforcement authorities, software developers and mobile service providers seem necessary. The Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning has started cooperating with the Police and Korea Customs Service in putting a halt to the illegal trade of smartphones.

Last April, the MSIP made an agreement with the Police and Korea Customs Service to conduct cooperative investigations for lost smartphones by providing IMEIs of smartphones and strengthening export inspections. Furthermore, the Police will conduct cooperative investigations with the Department of Public Peace in China, where a huge chunk of the stolen smartphones are sent to, and share IMEIs of misplaced phones as well as work to arrest habitual offenders.

It’s likely that the inclusion of the kill switch function will need a cooperation between the government, law enforcement authorities and private companies. However, the government body related to the matter did not reveal the details of their plans.

“We are aware that the manufacturers already know the methods of blocking illegal trade of stolen or lost smartphones. We do not know about the plans outside of what’s being discussed with the MSIP and Korea Customs Service,” a Police official said.

Though the MSIP official interviewed did not provide a clear answer, he hinted that the government is preparing to implement a system similar to the kill switch.

▲ The Activation Lock locks up an iPhone or iPad until the owner logs on to his iTunes account

Meanwhile, Apple is preparing a feature called ‘Activation Lock’, to be included in iOS7. Currently Apple has released the third developer beta for iOS7, and will be distributing the official release in fall.

The Activation Lock locks up a lost iPhone or iPad, making it unusable. The locked screen will only show the contact information of the original owner. The only way to get out of lock mode is by resetting the data through logging on to the owner’s iTunes account. The new feature will be available for free to all iPhone and iPad users of all supported generations.

“Strictly speaking, the Activation Lock is different from a kill switch which makes a phone totally useless. The user can unlock the device whenever they wish and he won’t have to call his carrier to block network connections,” an Apple Korea official said. Even Korean users will be able to use the Activation Lock feature right away after they get the iOS7 update.

0724-A Rising Addiction Among Youths: Smartphones

By 
• IN-SOO NAM

SEOUL—Lee Yun-soo has some regrets that she replaced her faded old clamshell phone with a smartphone six months ago.

The smartphone-penetration rate among children and teenagers in South Korea tripled last year, and the government says roughly one in five students is addicted to the devices. The WSJ’s Alastair Gale talks with Jake Lee about the problem.

The South Korean high-school student enjoys tweeting funny photos, messaging friends and playing online games. But she said her smartphone is increasingly disrupting her life at school and home.

"I hate doing it but I can't help it," she said as she fiddled with the palm-size gadget.

Ms. Lee is among the roughly 1 in 5 students in South Korea who the government said is addicted to smartphone use. This addiction is defined as spending more than seven hours a day using the phone and experiencing symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia and depression when cut off from the device.

Mobile Mania

South Koreans are among the world's biggest tech users. That can pose problems:

• South Korea has reached a mobile-phone penetration rate of more than 100%—meaning some people carry more than one handset—and smartphones represent nearly two-thirds of those devices, according to data from the government.
• For comparison, the smartphone-penetration rate in the U.S. was 50.4% as of June, according to the International Telecommunication Union.
• The smartphone-penetration rate in South Korean children ages 6 to 19 tripled to 65% last year from a year earlier, according to the Korea Communications Commission. The smartphone addiction rate among teenagers was 18%, double the addiction rate of 9.1% for adults, according to another government survey.
• According to the Pew Research Center, 37% of teens in the U.S. had smartphones in 2012.

Earlier this month, the South Korean government said it plans to provide nationwide counseling programs for youngsters by the end of the year and train teachers on how to deal with students with addiction. Taxpayer-funded counseling treatment here already exists for adult addicts.

South Korea, home to the world's biggest smartphone maker, Samsung Electronics, 005930.SE +2.28% prides itself on being the global leader in high-speed Internet and advanced mobile technology. Koreans are some of the first adopters of new digital devices.

Enlarge Image

With a mobile-phone penetration rate of more than 100%—meaning some individuals carry more than one handset—and smartphones nearly two-thirds of those devices, the government is setting measures to deal with the problems such heavy exposure has spawned. For comparison, the smartphone penetration rate in the U.S. was 50% as of June, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

Korea has had problems with online-game addiction among teenagers for years thanks to widespread availability of high-speed Internet services. Now that smartphone penetration among teens and children is rising at a faster pace than other groups, the age at which people find it hard to wean themselves from a smartphone is getting lower.

Enlarge Image

Associated Press

In many South Korean schools, teachers routinely collect mobile devices from their students during school hours. The government said it plans to train teachers how to deal with students who suffer smartphone addiction.

The smartphone penetration rate in children ages 6 to 19 tripled to 65% last year from a year earlier, according to the Korea Communications Commission. Meanwhile, the smartphone addiction rate among teens was 18%, double the addiction rate of 9.1% for adults, according to another government survey. According to the Pew Research Center, 37% of teens in the U.S. had smartphones in 2012.

"The situation is already serious," said Hwang Tae-hee, an official at South Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality & Family.

The problem is surfacing in other tech-savvy places such as Japan and Taiwan. A survey in Japan found that smartphone use among high school girls tripled last year.

As well as distracting students from their studies, experts say it is damaging interpersonal skills.

"Students today are very bad at reading facial expressions," said Setsuko Tamura, a professor of applied psychology at Tokyo Seitoku University. "When you spend more time texting people instead of talking to them, you don't learn how to read nonverbal language."

In Taiwan, the phenomenon of constantly checking email or social media has led to the label "heads-down tribes." A survey by the Taiwan Network Information Center showed that the number of people accessing the Internet via laptops, tablets or smartphones in the past six months has doubled to a record 5.35 million from a year earlier.

It is standard practice in Korean schools for teachers to collect mobile devices from their students during school hours—with patchy success. "Some of them hide their phones and use them during the break or even in class," said Lee Kyoung-shin, a high-school teacher in Incheon, west of Seoul.

Smartphones are often the most important possession for a young person, said Ms. Tamura of Tokyo Seitoku University. "It represents their connection to their friends. Not participating could mean exclusion from a circle of friends, so we always find that children are terribly anxious to respond to messages," she said.

Smartphone one-upmanship has led to incidents of bullying in Korean schools, where a 12-stage smartphone ranking sets the latest models as "kings" and earlier models as "slaves." Theft is common, said Kim Hoi-kyung, a school supervisor at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. The office in June decided to provide up to 20 million won ($17,830) per school this year to help teachers pay for losses of smartphones in their possession.

Lee Yun-soo, the 18-year-old high-school student, has found a way to avoid the distraction of her smartphone during exam periods: She removes the SIM card, which stores phone numbers, from her Android phone and inserts it into an older, Internet-disabled phone.

"I keep asking myself: 'Why did I buy a smartphone?' Sometimes I stay up all night using Facebook and tweeting. After switching to a smartphone, I quickly became addicted." she said.

—Mayumi Negishi in Tokyo and Eva Dou in Taipei contributed to this article.

0723-Apple Says Its Developer Site Was Hacked

Apple Inc. told software developers that its website for them had been hacked and some information may have been stolen.

In response to the attack, which took place Thursday, the company said it is overhauling its developer systems, updating software and rebuilding its database.

Associated Press

Developers look over new apps being displayed on iPads at the Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco in June.

In an email sent to the developers, Apple said an intruder attempted to secure personal information from the website. It also said that “sensitive” personal information on the site is encrypted and cannot be accessed and that information associated with its customers wasn’t affected.

“However, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed,” the company wrote.

Apple said it took the site down Thursday and has been working around the clock since then in response to the attack. “In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue,” the email said.

The company didn’t say how many developers might have been affected by the attack. But large numbers of people work on creating software for Apple’s popular iPhones and iPads as well as its Mac computers. The company says there are 275,000 registered developers for its mobile devices.

The developer connection website contains pre-release software, technology for testing new programs and information about how to code applications for the company’s various products. Apple is currently completing work on new versions of its iOS mobile operating system and its Mac software.

The company hadn’t previously explained why the website became inaccessible Thursday. Some online publications reported that developers said their passwords had been reset.

Apple had largely been spared the high-profile break-ins that have afflicted some other companies. Sony was attacked in 2011, for example, causing more than 100 million of its customer’s accounts to be compromised. Hacking groups, including the loosely organized Internet political group Anonymous, attacked the systems of various other companies including Nintendo, and government affiliates and agencies.

Apple assured developers that it is “completely overhauling” its developer systems, updating software and working on its databases.

“In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we’re completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon.”

Apple declined to provide any information about who attacked them, nor whether it was working with any government agencies or outside investigative teams.

“The website that was breached is not associated with any customer information,” Tom Neumayr, an Apple spokesman said. “Additionally, customer information is securely encrypted.”

David Barnard, founder of App Cubby, a company that makes apps for Apple’s devices, said having the site down is an inconvenience. But he said he is not worried about the lost data, since he uses a UPS mailbox for his address and a unique password that could not be used to tap into other sites.

One potential worry is if the attacker got access to his company’s employer identification number, the equivalent of a social security number for businesses, “but from what I understand that data is stored in a completely separate system and was not compromised,” Barnard said.

0722-Why Startups Are Sporting Increasingly Quirky Names

By 
• LINDSAY GELLMAN

Claudio Papapietro for The Wall Street Journal

David Leiberman, left, and Sammy Rubin, co-founders of digital sing-along storybook business Mibblio. The name combines "music" and "biblio."

The New York cousins who started a digital sing-along storybook business have settled on the name Mibblio.

The Australian founder of a startup connecting big companies to big-data scientists has dubbed his service Kaggle.

The former toy executive behind a two-year-old mobile screen-sharing platform is going with the name Shodogg.

And the Missourian who founded a website giving customers access to local merchants and service providers? He thinks it should be called Zaarly.

Quirky names for startups first surfaced about 20 years ago in Silicon Valley, with the birth of search engines such as Yahoo, YHOO -1.85% —which stands for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," and Google, GOOG -1.55% a misspelling of googol,” the almost unfathomably high number represented by a 1 followed by 100 zeroes.

By the early 2000s, the trend had spread to startups outside the Valley, including the Vancouver-based photo-sharing site Flickr and New York-based blogging platform Tumblr, to name just two.

The current crop of startups boasts even wackier spellings. The reason, they say, is that practically every new business—be it a popsicle maker or a furniture retailer—needs its own website. With about 252 million domain names currently registered across the Internet, the short, recognizable dot-com Web addresses, or URLs, have long been taken.

The only practical solution, some entrepreneurs say, is to invent words, like Mibblio, Kaggle, Shodogg and Zaarly, to avoid paying as much as $2 million for a concise, no-nonsense dot-com URL.

The rights to Investing.com, for example, sold for about $2.5 million last year.

Startup Name Trends

When it comes to naming, many startups take their cues from the successful startups of the moment -- such as Stockholm-based music sharing platform Spotify, New York link-shortener bitly, Los Altos, Calif.-based cloud-based content manager Box or San Francisco-based credit-card reader maker Square.

Here are informal tallies of trendy categories of startup names by verbal branding consultants Christopher Johnson and Nancy Friedman:

• Suffixes "ify" or "efy": 102
• Suffixes "ly," "li" or "lee": 161
• Containing "box": 28
• Containing "square": 10

Choosing a name that's a made-up word also helps entrepreneurs steer clear of trademark entanglements.

The challenge is to come up with something that conveys meaning, is memorable,—and isn't just alphabet soup. Most founders don't have the budget to hire naming advisers.

Founders tend to favor short names of five to seven letters, because they worry that potential customers might forget longer ones, according to Steve Manning, founder of Igor, a name-consulting company.

Linguistically speaking, there are only a few methods of forming new words. They include misspelling, compounding, blending and scrambling.

At Mibblio, the naming process was "the length of a human gestation period," says the company's 28-year-old co-founder David Leiberman, "but only more painful," adds fellow co-founder Sammy Rubin, 35.

The two men made several trips back to the drawing board; early contenders included Babethoven, Yipsqueak and Canarytales, but none was a perfect fit. One they both loved, Squeakbox, was taken.

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Finally, Mr. Leiberman thought to blend together "music" and "biblio," the Latin root of "book," to form "Miblio."

"It looked like 'MY-blee-oh'," Mr. Rubin says. So he suggested they add a second "b" to aid pronunciation. Plus, the two b's double as eighth notes in the company's logo.

To come up with Kaggle, Anthony Goldbloom, 30, an Australian-born data scientist, wrote an algorithm to generate all the pronounceable combinations of letters, three syllables or fewer, whose dot-com addresses weren't claimed.

"I was too frugal to want to pay for an [existing] domain name," he says. Of the 700 names spit out by the algorithm, he found two finalists: Sumble and Kaggle. He dashed off an email to family and friends asking for their preferences.

The overwhelming response was Kaggle. So he went with that.

Kaggle is now backed by several Silicon Valley investors, and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, who is also its chairman.

However, since moving his company to the U.S. from Australia, Mr. Goldbloom says he has discovered that Midwesterners tend to pronounce the name KAY-gel, as in "Kegel," the pelvic-floor-strengthening exercises done by women to prevent or remedy urinary incontinence. In other words: It's probably not the best name for an online data startup.

"The primary driver for startup naming right now is the misguided mission to find the shortest possible, pronounceable [unclaimed] dotcom address," says Igor's Mr. Manning.

Startups are likely underestimating their potential customers, and adding an unnecessary constraint, in clinging to short URLs, he adds.

In the mid-20th century, the heyday of the Yellow Pages, company names starting with an "A" became popular.

Then, closer to the turn of the century, 800 phone numbers drove a trend of seven-letter names compatible with touch-tone phones.

Those trends, like today's, reflect entrepreneurs' determination to stake out the best virtual real estate available.

In 2004, Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield set out to name their fledgling photo-sharing site. They wanted to call it Flicker, but Flicker.com was taken, and the domain owner was unwilling to sell. So Ms. Fake suggested they instead call the company Flickr. Nine years later, the site boasts more than eight billion photos.

What began as a practical adaptation to a lack of short URLs became a marker of a certain aesthetic. When it launched in 2006, Twitter called itself Twttr, because, as co-founder Biz Stone explains, Twitter.com "was taken, so we assumed it would be too expensive." Once the company was up and running, the founders made arrangements to "buy the vowels," he says.

The newest crop of names is fueling the trend it reflects. The result: many of the new, made-up names look and sound alike. The success of Spotify, which was founded in 2006 and now has 24 million active users and a valuation of around $3 billion, likely sparked the recent spate of "ify" names.

Christopher Johnson, a Seattle-based verbal branding consultant, counts 102 startups ending in "ify," up from just a handful five years ago. Relative newcomers include New York-based notifications system Xtify, as well as Stackify, an information-technology service provider in Kansas City, Mo.

In the case of Shodogg, which was founded in 2011 by Herb Mitschele, now 35, the goal was a catchier brand name for parent company TouchStream Technologies Inc.

The idea was to play on the term "show dog," a name that for the founding team conjured up both the notion of the screen-sharing app as "video's best friend" and as a vehicle for showing off media, Mr. Mitschele says.

The compound "Showdog" was too boring. Misspelling it as "Shodog" was better, he says, but it looked too short on the page, and lacked personality.

So Mr. Mitschele added a second "g," which, he says, combined with the missing "w," conveys an attitude of not taking things so seriously that you have to spell everything right.”