At the LINE Conference 2018 held earlier in Tokyo, LINE announced its intention to use blockchain to "reshape" its various online services and promote the "LINE Token Economy." This initiative will utilize self-developed blockchain technology to integrate LINE's own "currency" into each service, and will continue to optimize services through feedback, thereby generating more positive feedback loops.
Regarding the previously mentioned LINE Financial service, LINE announced that it will establish a cryptocurrency exchange "BITBOX", which is expected to be officially launched in July this year. It is expected to be available to users outside the United States and Japan, and will support 7 languages (excluding Japan) and more than 15 popular cryptocurrencies. It is expected to promote greater cash flow through the cryptocurrency exchange.
LINE KAKEIBO, scheduled to launch this fall, is a service designed to meet the needs of personalized financial management by monitoring daily expenses and income for individuals or families. It will integrate financial services such as LINE Pay, online banking, credit cards, and online retail websites, allowing users to more conveniently manage their income and expenses through LINE services. For added convenience, users can even use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to directly capture receipts to quickly create expense details.
In addition, LINE Financial also formed an alliance with Sompo Nipponkoa in April this year to provide insurance services in the non-life insurance sector. At the same time, it also announced its investment in justInCase at this event. In the future, insurance will be available directly through the justInCase app, and operations are expected to begin on July 4 this year.
Expanding LINE Pay payment applications
Regarding LINE Pay, LINE announced a partnership with Japan's JCB to integrate LINE Pay with JCB's contactless payment system, QUICPay. This will become a third payment method, joining LINE Pay cards and LINE Pay QR code payment. Users can simply hold their smartphone against a card reader to pay using their LINE Pay stored value. This service is available at approximately 72 locations in Japan. However, this service is currently limited to Android devices and is only available in Japan.
At the same time, through the promotion of the commercial version of LINE Pay (LINE Pay for Merchants), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can, after being verified as LINE Pay merchants, use the "cash register" within the commercial version of LINE Pay to receive payments directly through LINE Pay on their phones by scanning QR codes. They can also use the messaging function to provide consumers and customers with discount coupons, promotional information, and even communicate directly with consumers.
WeChat has long offered a similar function, allowing merchants to accept payments by scanning QR codes. LINE has also long supported the ability to accept payments by scanning users' LINE Pay QR codes with cash register devices. This time, it further opens up the service to small businesses, allowing them to accept payments directly by scanning codes with smartphones, thereby establishing a more convenient consumer transaction model. It is expected to expand to more than 100 million transaction points in Japan by the end of this year.
To attract small and medium-sized businesses to join this service, LINE plans to not charge any upfront fees or handling fees to merchants applying for the commercial version of LINE Pay for the next three years starting from August this year. It will also implement a LINE Points reward mechanism in Japan to encourage consumers to continue making transactions through LINE Pay. By accumulating badge color levels (including green, blue, red or white), consumers will be able to receive varying proportions of LINE Points in return, including an additional 8% LINE Points reward on top of the original LINE Points reward ratio. The promotional period from August this year to the end of July next year will temporarily remove the restriction on not rewarding points for purchases exceeding 3 yen.
