Feb 7, 2013

[Sd] NHN Japan to subsidize Line app business, hopes to intensify international push

Japanese several news resources report today that NHN Japan, most known for its wildly popular Line messaging app, is considering splitting the company into two entities corresponding to its business fields. Its online game portal Hangame is expected to be handled under the existing company but may change its name to Hangame Corporation (tentative), and the Line app, search portal Naver, and news portal and blogging platform Livedoor (acquired from Livedoor Corp in April of 2010) will be handed over to a new company called Line Corporation (tentative title). The split is expected to take place on April 1st, 2013. 
In the interests of intensifying international marketing efforts for the Line app, the company is also planning to set up a special company called Line Plus Corporation, which will be jointly funded by Line Corporation and NHN Corporation (the parent company in Korea). 
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Sd 2/7/2013 [en]

memo
  • Games on LINE platform such as LINE POP or LINE Bubble will go to Hangame corporation. Considering that LINE games are making a large part of revenue on LINE platform, it looks bit weird to separate the games from LINE itself. Also,  Livedoor and Naver are still mainly PC-based services which do not seem to have a great synergy with LINE. Maybe NHN has a secret strategy behind the split of the company.

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