Line Yahoo will terminate its Japanese service for the simple payment service 'Line Pay.'
On the 13th, Line Yahoo announced that it will gradually end Line Pay in Japan by April 30 next year. However, services in Thailand and Taiwan will be maintained as is.
Line Pay launched its Japanese service in December 2014. It provides mobile simple remittance and payment services and had secured over 44 million users as of May.
The decision to close the service is for business efficiency. Since SoftBank, the major shareholder of Line Yahoo, has its own simple payment service 'PayPay,' which overlaps in scope, they are consolidating overlapping businesses. SoftBank created PayPay in 2018. PayPay and Line Pay had engaged in cutthroat competition in the Japanese simple payment market, but after Naver Line and SoftBank joined forces, they came under one roof.
Line Yahoo stated that it has been pursuing service integration even before the controversy over share sales, aiming for selection and concentration. Line Yahoo said, "We reorganized businesses to expand group synergy and unified overlapping business areas, promoting selection and concentration of management resources in the financial sector." However, some analysts suggest this might be part of an effort to 'erase Naver.'
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