App, Website or LINE Mini App for the First Version of a New Business in Japan

People running new business projects often come to me saying "we want to build an app." As we talk, it usually turns out the app is a means. What they really need to decide is where the business meets its customers.

App, website or LINE mini app: I settle this with two questions. How often will people use it? Where will the first users come from?

I have built and shipped iPhone apps, Mac apps and web services of my own. This is how I think about where each of the three fits.

The numbers to start from

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' 2025 Communications Usage Trend Survey, published in May 2026, 91.8% of households have a smartphone, and 78.9% of individuals do. In the survey results, social media is the most common reason people use the internet.

In January 2026, LY Corporation announced that LINE had passed 100 million monthly users in Japan as of the end of December 2025, counted as accounts that opened LINE on a smartphone at least once that month.

Put together: if you sell to consumers in Japan, your customers almost certainly have a smartphone, and most of them open LINE. The question is where your service fits on that phone.

Question one: how often will people use it

If people use the service every day, or at least every week, a native app is worth it. An icon on the home screen, notifications, instant access when they open it. That convenience pays off more the more often they come back.

If they use it once a month or a few times a year, the web is enough. An app opened twice a year asks users to give up storage, take updates and remember a login. For them, the cost outweighs the benefit.

In between sit things like store visits, reservations, membership cards and stamp cards. The moment of use is clear, but it is not daily. I think this is where a LINE mini app fits best.

Question two: where will the first users come from

Downloading an app is a hurdle in itself. Open the App Store page, tap Get, wait, open it, log in. Every extra step loses some people.

So pick the form by where your first users come in:

• scanning a QR code at a store or event: a LINE mini app or the web
• from social media ads or articles: a web page
• searching on the App Store: an app

Ask someone at a store counter to download an app from a QR code, and I expect many will close it on the spot.

What LINE mini apps do well, and what to watch

As LINE's official documentation says, people can use a LINE mini app without installing anything. You can add payments and service messages (notices sent to users).

Watch for the difference between verified and unverified mini apps. Anyone can create an unverified mini app, but its header shows the title and the domain name, and some features are restricted. Features such as adding a shortcut to the home screen are for verified mini apps that have passed review. Build the review period into the schedule.

The other limit: it does not reach people who do not use LINE. For users abroad, or business tools used on a company PC, LINE is an unlikely way in. It suits consumer businesses in Japan tied to a store or an event.

When a native app is justified

Apart from frequency, some features need an app:

• deep use of the device, such as the camera or Bluetooth
• work that keeps running while the screen is closed
• widgets or health data
• running an AI model on the device

Notifications alone are less of a reason than they used to be. Since iOS 16.4, web apps added to the home screen on iPhone can receive push notifications (WebKit's announcement). Adding a web app to the home screen is still a confusing step for most people, though, so if notifications are central to the business, an app is the safer choice.

Compare the work after launch too

When companies compare the three forms, they usually compare the cost to build. The work after launch rarely gets compared.

A native app cannot be published or updated without passing store review. Even a small wording fix means building and submitting a new version, and if you ship on both iOS and Android, that is two submissions. Checks and fixes for each yearly OS update keep coming as well.

On the web, a fix reaches everyone the same day. A LINE mini app is a web page inside, so it updates nearly as fast.

In the first months of a new business, screens and wording change constantly. The more often you change things, the more a form that updates quickly is worth.

Build it so you can move later

Whatever form you start with, the best insurance is being able to change it later.

In practice, keep the data and logic on the server so the screens can be swapped. Start on the web or as a LINE mini app, and build the app once you know a meaningful number of users come back several times a week. In that order, you find out whether the service really gets weekly use before you spend the app budget.

The first number to watch is the share of people who use it again a week later and a month later. Downloads and signups can wait. Build an app while that share is low, and all you get is one more icon on a home screen.

At the first meeting

If you are deciding what form a new business should take, tell me three things at the first meeting: how often you want people to use it, where you plan to bring the first users in from, and whether you need device features such as the camera or location.

Those three usually settle the first version.