Line Corporation

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Line Corporation
Native name
LINE株式会社
Formerly
  • Hangame Japan (2000-2002)
  • NHN Japan (2003-2006)
  • NAVER Japan (2007-2012)
  • LINE[1] (2013-current)
TypePublic
IndustryInternet and Telecommunications
PredecessorNHN Japan
FoundedTokyo, Japan (September 4, 2000 (2000-09-04))
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Takeshi Idezawa, CEO
ProductsLINE, livedoor
ServicesLine 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)
OwnerZ Holdings (65.3%)
Number of employees
2,268
SubsidiariesLine Plus Corporation
Line Business Partners Corporation
DataHotel Co., Ltd.
Line Digital Frontier
Line Vietnam
Websitelinecorp.com

Line Corporation is a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Softbank Group and Naver Corporation. The company's business is mainly associated with the development of mobile applications and Internet services,[2] particularly the Line communication app.

History[]

Line Corporation was founded on September 4, 2000, as Hangame Japan as a part of Hangame, a South Korean game company owned by NHN at the time. On August 24, 2003, the company was renamed to NHN Japan. Naver later established another Japanese subsidiary, Naver Japan in 2007 which managed the Naver search engine in Japan before its demise. Naver Japan would later acquire Livedoor in 2010. In 2012, Naver merged the three entities (NHN Japan, Naver Japan, Livedoor) into a new subsidiary known as NHN Japan.[3] From April 1, 2013, the company changed its name and traded as Line Corporation.[4] Later that same year, NHN split into two companies, Naver Corporation and NHN Entertainment Corporation which the latter created a new NHN Japan Corporation subsidiary.[5] In November 2019 it was announced that Line and Z Holdings (formerly Yahoo! Japan) were going to be under a new subsidiary under Naver Corporation and SoftBank Group[6] which will be completed in October 2020, later postponed to March 2021.

References[]

  1. ^ "NAVER Timeline". November 16, 2019.
  2. ^ "LINE Corporation".
  3. ^ https://www.navercorp.com/en/company/companyHistory.nhn
  4. ^ "LINE Corporation". LINE Corporation.
  5. ^ "Korean Internet Company NHN Splits To Battle Kakao (Updated)". Forbes. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  6. ^ "Yahoo Japan and Line Corp. Confirm merger agreement".

External links[]


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