Line Corporation is a

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

-based subsidiary of

Z Holdings Z Holdings Corporation is a Tokyo-based holding company. Z Holdings owns Yahoo! Japan, Japan's largest portal website; Line, Japan's largest messaging app; and PayPay, Japan's largest mobile payment app. Z Holdings is controlled by another holdi ...

, which is jointly owned by

Softbank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

and

Naver Corporation The Naver Corporation is a South Korean internet conglomerate headquartered in Seongnam that operates the search engine Naver. Naver established itself as an early pioneer in the use of user-generated content through the creation of the onlin ...

. The company's business is mainly associated with the development of mobile applications and

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

services, particularly the Line communication app.

History

Line Corporation was founded on September 4, 2000, as Hangame Japan as a part of

Hangame Hangame ( ko, 한게임) (also known as Hange ( ja, ハンゲ) and formerly known as NHN Hangame ( ja, NHNハンゲーム) in Japan) is a popular South Korean online game portal operated by NHN Corporation. Launched in December 1999, Hangame offer ...

, a South Korean game company owned by NHN at the time. In August 2003, the company was renamed to NHN Japan. In 2007 Naver established another Japanese subsidiary Naver Japan, which managed the Naver search engine in Japan before its demise. Naver Japan acquire

Livedoor was a Japanese company that functioned as an Internet service provider and operator of a web portal and blog platform before being brought down by a scandal in 2006. The company was founded and led in its first 10 years by Takafumi Horie, known a ...

in 2010. In 2012, Naver merged the three entities (NHN Japan, Naver Japan, Livedoor) into a new subsidiary known as NHN Japan. On April 1, 2013, the company changed its name and traded as Line Corporation. Later that same year, NHN split into two companies,

and

NHN Entertainment Corporation NHN Corp. () is a Korean IT company that started its business as a game company called Hangame in 1999. Currently its main businesses can be categorized as Cloud, Fin-Tech (cross-border e-commerce, payment), Entertainment (game, webtoon, musi ...

and the latter created a new

NHN Japan Corporation NHN Japan Corporation is the Japanese subsidiary of NHN Entertainment Corporation NHN Corp. () is a Korean IT company that started its business as a game company called Hangame in 1999. Currently its main businesses can be categorized as Cl ...

subsidiary. In July 2016, Line Corporation held

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

s on both the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

and the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed co ...

. In late December 2020, Line delisted from both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange, in advance of its absorption-type merger agreement with Z Holdings. In March 2021 Line Corporation merged with Yahoo Japan, which has been operated by

, a

SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

subsidiary. Under the new structure,

(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. 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 giants

Baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; , meaning "hundred times") is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products and artificial intelligence (AI), headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District. It is one of the la ...

Alibaba Ali Baba (character), Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''. Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to: Films * Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902 film), ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a F ...

, and

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

, as well as the Japanese e-commerce giant

Rakuten () is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing financial technology, as well as digital content and communicati ...

. The merger also gives Z Holdings three additional Asian markets where Line is popular: Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia. In December 2021, Line Corporation established LINE NEXT to launch NFT marketplace.

References

External links

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LineNaver JapanLivedoorClova
Cloud Virtual Assistant by NAVER/LINE {{Authority control Naver Corporation South Korean brands Internet in Japan Z Holdings Telecommunications companies based in Tokyo Internet search engines Companies formerly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Japanese companies established in 2000 Telecommunications companies established in 2000 2016 initial public offerings 2021 mergers and acquisitions