Naver Integrates AI Assistant into Collaboration Tools to Strengthen Japan B2B Business

Works Mobile Japan merges with LINE Clova
Supporting work with AI assistant... Expanding Japan B2B market

Naver subsidiary Works Mobile Japan recently absorbed and integrated the AI division 'LINE Clova' of its affiliate LINE. This move aims to strengthen the business-to-business (B2B) operations in Japan.

Works Mobile Japan announced on the 11th that it absorbed and integrated LINE Clova on the 1st of this month. Works Mobile Japan provides the enterprise collaboration solution 'LINE WORKS' in Japan. It offers collaboration tools such as email, scheduling, surveys, and file sharing as subscription-based services. It has ranked first in the Japanese business chat market for six consecutive years from 2017 to last year.

The integration of the AI division into Works Mobile Japan is intended to expand the B2B business. LINE Clova develops the Japanese language model of the super-large AI 'HyperCLOVA' and supplies B2B solutions such as Clova Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Clova AI Call. The goal is to incorporate LINE Clova's AI technology into LINE WORKS to expand the enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) market.

Previously, Naver integrated AI and B2B business organizations such as Clova, Whale, and Papago into Naver Cloud. This consolidation aims to increase B2B revenue by combining necessary work services centered on Naver Cloud. A similar business restructuring has been carried out in Japan.

Works Mobile Japan, now incorporating the AI division, has begun developing the 'LINE WORKS AI Assistant (tentative name)'. The AI assistant supports work by reading chat conversations, registering tasks to be done, or drafting emails on behalf of users. Furthermore, there are plans to introduce AI assistants specialized by industry. The goal is to develop it into an AI super app that can handle all corporate tasks with a single solution.

Naver is driving its B2B business both domestically and internationally. While B2C businesses such as commerce and content have slowed down due to reduced non-face-to-face activities in the endemic phase, the B2B market is supported by companies' digital transformation driving growth.

Works Mobile increased its market share in Japan and posted its first annual profit last year. LINE WORKS surpassed an Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of 10 billion yen (approximately 97.7 billion KRW) consecutively in the third and fourth quarters of last year. ARR is an indicator showing the revenue received annually from contracted customers.

A Naver Cloud official said, "We will enhance work convenience and secure global competitiveness by applying Team Naver's AI technology and infrastructure to Works. We plan to expand various AI functions such as sentence generation and voice interfaces."