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 Line Corporation's headquarters | |
Native name | Line 株式会社 |
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| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Internet andTelecommunications |
| Predecessor | NHN Japan |
| Founded | September 4, 2000; 25 years ago (2000-09-04), inTokyo, Japan |
| Defunct | October 1, 2023 (2023-10-01) |
| Fate | Merged withZ Holdings andYahoo! Japan |
| Successor | LY Corporation |
| Headquarters | , Japan |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Takeshi Idezawa (CEO) |
| Products | Line,livedoor |
| Services | Line App, Line Manga, Line Play, Line Taxi |
| Revenue | ¥166.4B "$1.5B USD" (2020) |
| Total assets | ¥541.4B "$5B USD"(2020) |
| Total equity | ¥147.7B "$1.4B USD" (2020) |
Number of employees | 2,268 |
| Parent | Z Holdings (65.3%) |
| Subsidiaries | Line Plus Corporation Line Business Partners Corporation DataHotel Co., Ltd. Line Digital Frontier Line Vietnam Line Company Thailand |
| Website | www |
Line Corporation (Line 株式会社,LINEKabushiki gaisha) was a Japanese internet company. It was a subsidiary ofZ Holdings, a joint venture betweenSoftBank Group andNaver Corporation. It was established in 2000 as the Japanese subsidiary of South KoreanNHN Corporation's online game community siteHangame, under the nameHangame Japan[1]. In 2003, it was renamedNHN Japan and in 2013, it was rebranded as Line Corporation.
The company operates various internet services, including the communication appLine, as well asLine Music, andLine Manga, and Line Pay.
In 2019, during the merger with Yahoo, Line Corporation (the original entity) was reorganized into a holding company and established as Line Split Preparation Corporation, and in 2021, it changed its company name to Line Corporation (2nd generation) by taking over the business from the original entity. At this time, the original entity changed its name to A Holdings Corporation.
On February 2, 2023, it was announced that Z Holdings and Yahoo would merge during the fiscal year 2023.[2] On October 1 of the same year, Yahoo, Z Entertainment, and Z Data merged into Z Holdings and changed their name to "Line Yahoo Corporation."[3][4] Line Corporation transferred its assets, rights, and businesses to Line Yahoo Corporation through absorption-type split except for certain overseas stocks, and changed its name to the current one.[5] It is expected to become a holding company managing overseas subsidiaries' stocks and other assets through business reorganization.
Line Corporation was founded on September 4, 2000, asHangame Japan as a part ofHangame, a South Korean game company owned byNHN at the time. In August 2003, the company was renamed toNHN Japan.
In 2007 Naver established another Japanese subsidiaryNaver Japan, which managed the Naver search engine in Japan before its demise. Naver Japan acquiredLivedoor in 2010.
In 2012, Naver merged the three entities (NHN Japan, Naver Japan, Livedoor) into a new subsidiary known asNHN Japan.[6]
On April 1, 2013, the company changed its name and traded asLine Corporation.[7] Later that same year, NHN split into two companies,Naver Corporation andNHN Entertainment Corporation and the latter created a newNHN Japan Corporation subsidiary.[8]
In July 2016, Line Corporation heldIPOs on both theNew York Stock Exchange and theTokyo Stock Exchange.[9]
In late December 2020, Line delisted from both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange,[10] in advance of its absorption-type merger agreement with Z Holdings.[11]
In March 2021 Line Corporation merged withYahoo Japan, which has been operated byZ Holdings, aSoftBank Group subsidiary.[12] Under the new structure,Naver Corporation (Line's former parent company) and SoftBank Corp. (the wireless carrier unit of SoftBank Group) each hold 50 percent stakes in a new company named A Holdings Corp., which holds a majority stake in Z Holdings, which will operate Line and Yahoo Japan.[12][13][14] Upon integrating the two businesses and creating further platforms, the merged company aims to compete with the U.S. tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple and the Chinese tech giantsBaidu,Alibaba, andTencent,[13] as well as the Japanese e-commerce giantRakuten.[12] The merger also gives Z Holdings three additional Asian markets where Line is popular: Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.[12]
In April 2021, Line Corporation launched Line Bank, acommercial bank headquartered inTaipei,Taiwan.[15][16][17]
In February 2023, Z Holdings announced its intention to merge its subsidiaries, Line and Yahoo Japan.[18] In April, it was announced that the merger would be implemented on October 1, along with a simultaneous name change toLY Corporation.[19]
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