Yahoo Japan is likely to merge with Korea’s Line, to become a new super application

As reported by Nikkei, Yahoo Japan and the popular Line messaging app in Korea will merge into one. After the merger, both will develop an internet platform, financial services, retail and many other services.

SoftBank, which owns 45% of Japanese parent Yahoo Z Holdings, is currently in the final negotiation phase with Naver, which owns 73% of Line. The two sides set a goal to make a basic agreement by the end of this month.

This agreement will create a large internet platform, with more than 100 million users. This makes it possible to compete with the US and Chinese internet giants.

Another proposal was made, that SoftBank and Naver will establish a 50-50 joint venture, the largest shareholder is Z Holdings. Subsequently, Yahoo Japan and Line will be wholly owned subsidiaries of Z Holdings.

Around the world, large internet platforms are gradually replacing small internet companies that specialize in one area. A good example is China's Tencent, which has more than 1 billion users on the WeChat app, providing e-payment services, e-commerce, online streaming platforms, games and many other services. Now WeChat has become a super app, contributing to every aspect of our users' lives.

Line is also the most popular messaging app in Japan, with 82 million monthly users, far ahead of both Instagram and Facebook in the country. But Line is still struggling to attract new users, and is still seeing a net loss of 33.9 billion yen between January and September.

Z Holdings hopes that with the merger of Yahoo Japan and Line, both of these internet platforms will be able to become a new super application.

References: Nikkei