[THE INVESTOR] The much-publicized initial public offering of Line Corp. -- the world‘s seventh-most used messaging app -- has finally happened.

Owned by South Korean Internet giant Naver and based in Japan, Line went public on the New York Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange on July 14 and July 15, raising $1.3 billion in the biggest IPO of the year in the local tech sector.

But the IPO marks only one of the steps Line has been taking to maximize profit and strengthen its identity as a global service.

In an interview with The Korea Herald and The Investor, Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa outlined plans for the future that centered on renewing its focus on Asia and vitalizing mobile payment services.

The following are excerpts from the interview: 

Q: What are your other business focuses after messaging and the character business?

Idezawa: The strength of Line is that unlike other social media and messaging apps we are not dependent on a single revenue source. As far as future potential goes, we think we will see a lot of growth in the business-to-business field, such as with business platforms and ad platforms. We will also take challenges as we strive to establish new sources of revenue under our “smart portal” concept, such as with the new Line Pay and Line Mobile initiatives we announced at the recent Line Conference.

Q: How successful have you been with Line Pay and other mobile-based payment initiatives? What sort of strategy do you have for making this a viable business model?

Idezawa: Line has added various features to Line Pay with the aim of realizing a “cashless” world that eliminates all the inconveniences of cash transactions.
In addition to diversifying the ways people can add funds to their accounts, methods for paying at physical stores are also increasing. One such method is the Line Pay Card we created together with the credit card company JCB. It can be used at roughly 30 million locations worldwide where JCB cards are accepted. We also launched the Line Points rewards program through which users can earn 2 percent for all payments made using the Line Pay Card. We are aiming to further increase convenience for users by adding affiliate point program awards and increasing opportunities to use the card in daily life. We envision Line Pay and Line Points serving an important role in connecting internal and external services of the Line Platform and building the Line ecosystem.


Q: It has been reported that a substantial portion of Line’s sales is generated in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. What factors have led to your success in these countries? What have been your key strategies in the Japanese market in particular?

Idezawa: Line’s rapid growth in countries around the world -- and not just those you named -- was the result of our ability to ride the global wave of accelerating smartphone adoption and provide added value to nuts and bolts text-based SMS and mobile messaging with stickers, group chat, video calls and other high-quality Line services that have been well-received by the public. In the case of Japan, Thailand and Taiwan, they all have similar cultural backgrounds, and the particular popularity of stickers in these countries has been a driver of growth that has allowed us to quickly gain a leading market position in these nations.

In countries like Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia where we have become market leaders, we are moving to expand the Line platform, whereby messaging serves as the portal through which we provide a wide array of content and services, covering everything from stickers to games, comics, music and videos. We are now intensifying our efforts for this initiative under the slogan “Closing the distance.”

At the same time, in other countries -- particularly those in Asia -- we will focus on increasing the user base of the messaging app and increasing the number of countries where we are the market leader.


Q: There is criticism that while Line is strong in Asia, it has failed to gain ground in the U.S. or other markets. What is your view?

Idezawa: Asia will be home to a newly emerging consumer class of billions in the coming decade. Many global players are eager to come here. We play where the fish are, as we have to prioritize our resources. With our success in Asia and knowledge gained, we will of course venture out and try with our “Smart Portal” strategy to repeat our success in other places given time and opportunity. 


Q: Is Line completely withdrawing from Korea? There has been extensive advertising recently, but has that paid off? What is the current status of Line in Korea?

Idezawa: Line has rolled out all kinds of promotion activities in Korea and user figures are growing steadily. However, we are focusing more efforts on growth in other international markets at the current time.


Q: What is your strategy for surviving against global social media services like Facebook, Instagram and WeChat? In Japan it seems like Rakuten’s Viber is your biggest competition. Do you have any breakthrough plans to close the gap?

Idezawa: Strictly speaking we don’t identify any competitors. If you are too focused on your competition you can get lost trying to add differentiation through new features that ultimately don’t matter to your users. Our stance is to continue to put users first, concentrate on identifying what services users need right now, and quickly develop and distribute those services with the highest possible quality.

And as we explained at the conference, we are aiming to make Line a smart portal through which everybody can access the people, information, services, companies, and brands they want, online or offline, anywhere they are and anytime they need to 24/7.


Q: Taiwan and Thailand do have potential to grow, but their markets are not particularly big. What is your strategy for other countries in Asia?

Idezawa: The key is localization. To be accepted in Asia and the rest of the world, we believe it is important that we provide services and contents that are rooted in local culture and lifestyles. Therefore our expansion strategies in each country are conducted in tandem with localization strategies. For example, in Indonesia we have created a feature for finding old classmates and distributed Ramadan stickers. We will keep finding new services and content that can fulfill the unique needs of each country.


Q: It has been made clear that there was no fault with Line’s security in the recent Becky scandal, but was your image affected by the incident? Did you take any additional measures to reinforce your security? If you did not do anything in particular, can we get a statement from you ensuring our readers and Line users that there are no security issues with Line?

Idezawa: In any and all situations, Line strictly maintains the secrecy of communication regulations stipulated by Japan’s constitution and places top priority on protecting the privacy of our users. We are confident that personal information leaks are not a concern as long as you properly protect your password and devices. We ask that our users make sure that they are fully protecting their personal devices from unwanted use by others.


Q: We understand Line never had a mission, which is unusual for a company of this size. Please explain the new mission and why you have created it.

Idezawa: As a communication app we understand the need to constantly communicate with our users and evolve.

That is where our mission comes into play. “Closing the distance,” means that we want to bring everything closer together, from people to services and information. Everything is at your fingertips. 


By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)