news

Japan’s Vinclu, holographic virtual assistant developer, acquired by Line

Takeshi Hirano 2017.03.02

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Vinclu, the Japanese startup developing a holographic virtual assistant called Gatebox, has announced that it will start co-developing solutions using Clova, the artificial intelligence (AI) platform developed by Japanese messaging company Line and its Korean parent company Naver. Coinciding with this, Line unveiled that it will take a major stake in Vinclu although financial details have not been disclosed. Upon this acquisition, Jun Masuda, CSMO (Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer) of Line, joined the management board of Vinclu on March 1st while Primal Capital’s Hiroshi Sasaki will retain the startup’s strategic advisor position. The Clova AI platform was just unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2017, underway now in Barcelona. Aiming to catch up with competitors like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, the Naver and Line consortium are planning to introduce AI-enabled solutions in Japan and Korea this summer, with products like the Clova app and the Wave smart speaker. See also: Gatebox, holographic virtual assistant, launches pre-orders for geeks in Japan, US Japan’s Vinclu gains $768K in funding to develop hologram assistant for smart living The Clova platform consists of Clova Brain and Clova Interface, each of which is respectively relevant to the…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Vinclu, the Japanese startup developing a holographic virtual assistant called Gatebox, has announced that it will start co-developing solutions using Clova, the artificial intelligence (AI) platform developed by Japanese messaging company Line and its Korean parent company Naver. Coinciding with this, Line unveiled that it will take a major stake in Vinclu although financial details have not been disclosed.

Upon this acquisition, Jun Masuda, CSMO (Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer) of Line, joined the management board of Vinclu on March 1st while Primal Capital’s Hiroshi Sasaki will retain the startup’s strategic advisor position.

The Clova AI platform was just unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2017, underway now in Barcelona. Aiming to catch up with competitors like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, the Naver and Line consortium are planning to introduce AI-enabled solutions in Japan and Korea this summer, with products like the Clova app and the Wave smart speaker.

See also:

The Clova platform consists of Clova Brain and Clova Interface, each of which is respectively relevant to the eyes/mouth and the ears of humans. While a hardware device like the Wave smart speaker secures interfaces that allow the platform to communicate with users, Vinclu’s Gatebox is considered to be defined in that layer.

According to the statement from Line, the company signed a partnership with Sony Mobile Communications in the smart product development and with Takara Tomy (TSE:7867) in the smart toy development, in addition to one with Vinclu in the home robot development. Going forward Vinclu will leverage the Clova platform to develop various applications such
as news updates and calendar-based content offerings, voice command-based home control and Audiobook playback.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Japan’s Line launches $42 million fund, looking to diversify revenue stream

Line

Masaru Ikeda 2015.02.09

Japanese internet messaging company Line announced today that it has founded a new fund focused on investing in e-commerce, payments solutions, O2O (online-to-offline), media, and entertainment sectors, called Line Life Global Gateway. This is part of the efforts which was announced at the company’s annual showcasing event last October, aiming to diversify its revenue stream beyond messaging related services. The fund is planned to be worth around 5 billion yen (about $42.1 million) and operated for ten years since 4th February under the responsibility of Line’s CSMO (chief strategic marketing officer) Jun Masuda. See also: Japan’s LINE teams up with Gumi for game distribution while forming own $100M fund for developers Japan’s Line unveils to launch payments, cab hailing, food delivery services, and much more Via TechCrunch Japan / Impress NetShop Tantousha Forum

Japanese internet messaging company Line announced today that it has founded a new fund focused on investing in e-commerce, payments solutions, O2O (online-to-offline), media, and entertainment sectors, called Line Life Global Gateway.

This is part of the efforts which was announced at the company’s annual showcasing event last October, aiming to diversify its revenue stream beyond messaging related services.

The fund is planned to be worth around 5 billion yen (about $42.1 million) and operated for ten years since 4th February under the responsibility of Line’s CSMO (chief strategic marketing officer) Jun Masuda.

news

Line ties up with recruitment company to provide part-time job info to messaging app users

Masaru Ikeda 2015.01.15

Japanese human resources company Intelligence Holdings (TSE:4757) and messaging platform operator Line announced today that they have agreed to launch a joint venture called Aube, specifically focused on offering part-time jobs for Line users. Intelligence Holdings provides recruitment services for office workers in addition to publishing several digital and hardcopy media for part-time job offerings. By integrating with the userbase of Line, the recruiter wants to launch a new job offering platform targeting smartphone users. According to Jun Masuda, Line’s chief strategy and marketing officer as well as the new company’s chairman, typical part-time job seekers are in their teens and 20s, so the two companies can expect to see a synergy in connecting part-time job offering opportunities with the messaging app’s userbase. Their plan includes finding potential clients by leveraging Line@, the messaging app-based customer engagement platform for retailers, and paying wages to part-time workers using Line Pay, a mobile payments platform for Line users. See also: Japan’s Line unveils to launch payments, cab hailing, food delivery services, and much more Via Nikkei (paywalled) and CNET Japan Edited by Chris Ames Pomeroy

Japanese human resources company Intelligence Holdings (TSE:4757) and messaging platform operator Line announced today that they have agreed to launch a joint venture called Aube, specifically focused on offering part-time jobs for Line users.

Intelligence Holdings provides recruitment services for office workers in addition to publishing several digital and hardcopy media for part-time job offerings. By integrating with the userbase of Line, the recruiter wants to launch a new job offering platform targeting smartphone users.

According to Jun Masuda, Line’s chief strategy and marketing officer as well as the new company’s chairman, typical part-time job seekers are in their teens and 20s, so the two companies can expect to see a synergy in connecting part-time job offering opportunities with the messaging app’s userbase. Their plan includes finding potential clients by leveraging Line@, the messaging app-based customer engagement platform for retailers, and paying wages to part-time workers using Line Pay, a mobile payments platform for Line users.

See also:

Japan’s Line unveils to launch payments, cab hailing, food delivery services, and much more

Via Nikkei (paywalled) and CNET Japan

Edited by Chris Ames Pomeroy

news

Japan’s Line unveils to launch payments, cab hailing, food delivery services, and much more

Line

Masaru Ikeda 2014.10.09

Japanese messaging app Line held an annual showcasing event called Line Conference Tokyo today, where they announced the launch of brand new services like payments, taxi calling, food delivery, indoor maps and more. Line Pay, micro-payments solutions using the messaging app, will be provided in partnership with Japan’s Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. Line Taxi, the cab-hailing feature, will be provided in partnership with Nihon Kotsu which already has their own mobile app that allows users to hail a cab. Line Wow, the food delivery service, will be also provided in partnership with Korean startup Woowa Brothers but it’s delivery area is limited only to Shibuya, in central Tokyo. In addition to these services, Line will launch a new app called ‘Line Maps for Indoor’ later this week, which allows users to check out updates from retailers in shopping malls such as Parco and Lumine. To strengthen development of gaming apps, Line also announced that it has launched a joint venture with Japanese internet companies CyberAgent and GREE. Furthermore, as part of their initiative upon investing in Japanese game developers, which was announced a few months ago, Line announced that they have selected TransLimit, the startup behind globally-trending gaming…

line-conference-tokyo_featuredimage — Image from Line’s livecast

Japanese messaging app Line held an annual showcasing event called Line Conference Tokyo today, where they announced the launch of brand new services like payments, taxi calling, food delivery, indoor maps and more.

Line Pay, micro-payments solutions using the messaging app, will be provided in partnership with Japan’s Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. Line Taxi, the cab-hailing feature, will be provided in partnership with Nihon Kotsu which already has their own mobile app that allows users to hail a cab. Line Wow, the food delivery service, will be also provided in partnership with Korean startup Woowa Brothers but it’s delivery area is limited only to Shibuya, in central Tokyo.

In addition to these services, Line will launch a new app called ‘Line Maps for Indoor’ later this week, which allows users to check out updates from retailers in shopping malls such as Parco and Lumine.

To strengthen development of gaming apps, Line also announced that it has launched a joint venture with Japanese internet companies CyberAgent and GREE. Furthermore, as part of their initiative upon investing in Japanese game developers, which was announced a few months ago, Line announced that they have selected TransLimit, the startup behind globally-trending gaming app BrainWars, to help nurture at a faster rate and larger reach from now.

news

Japan’s LINE teams up with Gumi for game distribution while forming own $100M fund for developers

Gumi
Line

Masaru Ikeda 2014.08.06

Japanese messaging app company Line and gaming company Gumi held a press briefing in Tokyo earlier today, where LINE said it will invest thousands of millions of US dollars in game developer Gumi and take about a 10% stake in the latter company. At this timing, both companies have agreed that they LINE as well is forming jointly a 10 billion yen (about $100 million) fund focused on investing in Japanese game developers. Update: Gumi is not involved in forming this fund. It will be called Line Game Global Gateway and managed by Line and its investment arm Line Ventures. LINE has distributed gaming apps through their user base of over 400 million people worldwide. At the briefing, Jun Masuda, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at LINE, explained that the company plans to target the ‘midcore’ category rather than existing casual game titles since their users’ preference are diversified. In terms of this, he pointed out that Gumi is the best partner for the messaging platform company. LINE recognized that Gumi is an outstanding developer showing good numbers in sustainable but rapid user acquisition in the US, Southeast Asian and Korean markets. Gumi’s CEO Hironao Kunimitsu says that he wants…

Japanese messaging app company Line and gaming company Gumi held a press briefing in Tokyo earlier today, where LINE said it will invest thousands of millions of US dollars in game developer Gumi and take about a 10% stake in the latter company. At this timing, ~~both companies have agreed that they~~ LINE as well is forming ~~jointly~~ a 10 billion yen (about $100 million) fund focused on investing in Japanese game developers.

Update: Gumi is not involved in forming this fund. It will be called Line Game Global Gateway and managed by Line and its investment arm Line Ventures.

LINE has distributed gaming apps through their user base of over 400 million people worldwide. At the briefing, Jun Masuda, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at LINE, explained that the company plans to target the ‘midcore’ category rather than existing casual game titles since their users’ preference are diversified. In terms of this, he pointed out that Gumi is the best partner for the messaging platform company.

LINE recognized that Gumi is an outstanding developer showing good numbers in sustainable but rapid user acquisition in the US, Southeast Asian and Korean markets. Gumi’s CEO Hironao Kunimitsu says that he wants to start distributing gaming apps through the LINE distribution channel as soon as possible.

news

Line reported to submit IPO application to Tokyo Stock Exchange

Line
Naver

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.15

According to several news sources, Line, the Japanese messaging app company and a subsidiary of Korea internet company Naver (TSE:035420), was reported today that it has submitted an IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company and its potential underwriter Nomura Securities have not approved the report. Bloomberg reported last month that Line has been in talk with Morgan Stanley and Nomura Securities to explore possibilities to go IPOs at Tokyo Stock Exchange as well as New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ simultaneously.

According to several news sources, Line, the Japanese messaging app company and a subsidiary of Korea internet company Naver (TSE:035420), was reported today that it has submitted an IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company and its potential underwriter Nomura Securities have not approved the report.

Bloomberg reported last month that Line has been in talk with Morgan Stanley and Nomura Securities to explore possibilities to go IPOs at Tokyo Stock Exchange as well as New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ simultaneously.

news

Line tries to reach beyond casual gamers with ‘Shake Spears’

Rick Martin 2014.05.07

Line Corporation’s latest entry in the mobile gaming space is a rehashed version of the jousting game Shake Spears from Russian developer Alawar Entertainment. The original Shake Spears title first hit app stores way back in mid–2011. Line announced this game was coming to its platform last year, and now this past week it has finally gone live on both iOS and Android. Like most of Line’s casual titles, Shake Spears lets you connect with your friends on the popular messaging platform. But here, in what Line calls its first ever real-time battle game, you can joust against your friends if they are online at the same time. You can also play against other players beyond your Line friends, or against the ‘environment’ (ostensibly meaning computer players [1]). There are a number of in-game purchases available too (surprise, surprise!), including upgraded weaponry and equipment, as well as magic that can be used in matches. In order to joust, you need to use one finger/thumb on the right to move your spear up or down, and likewise you need you use a finger/thumb on the left to defend with your shield. The action turns to a slow motion view as you…

Line Corporation’s latest entry in the mobile gaming space is a rehashed version of the jousting game Shake Spears from Russian developer Alawar Entertainment. The original Shake Spears title first hit app stores way back in mid–2011. Line announced this game was coming to its platform last year, and now this past week it has finally gone live on both iOS and Android.

Like most of Line’s casual titles, Shake Spears lets you connect with your friends on the popular messaging platform. But here, in what Line calls its first ever real-time battle game, you can joust against your friends if they are online at the same time. You can also play against other players beyond your Line friends, or against the ‘environment’ (ostensibly meaning computer players [1]). There are a number of in-game purchases available too (surprise, surprise!), including upgraded weaponry and equipment, as well as magic that can be used in matches.

In order to joust, you need to use one finger/thumb on the right to move your spear up or down, and likewise you need you use a finger/thumb on the left to defend with your shield. The action turns to a slow motion view as you approach the opposing knight, and you can even feint a low hit and then hit high above your opponent’s shield. Check out our video demo above for a quick walkthough of how jousting looks.

Line’s chief strategy and marketing officer Jun Masuda said in his company’s announcement that he hopes the game will “appeal to and attract both casual and core gamers alike.”

Personally I think it’s optimistic to think that a game like this will attract anything other than casual gamers. But Alawar will definitely benefit from the reach of the Line platform, which now extends to 420 million users globally.

Overall I think this is a fun game that would appeal to Western/European users of Line, and maybe it might be an asset for the company if and when it can win some popularity in those markets [2]. As for Line’s core markets here in the Asia region, I’d be surprised if any of them are receptive to Shake Spears.

It’s a little tricky to tell whether you’re playing against someone in real time or not. I took on a friend in duel mode, but I’m not certain whether or not we were logged in at once. ↩
Line has seen some popularity in Spain, but not that much elsewhere in Europe. ↩

news

Line Rangers tops 10M downloads, gets TV promo boost in Japan

Rick Martin 2014.05.05

Line Corportation corporation recently announced that its Line Rangers game has surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide. The title was initially released back on February 28th, reaching the milestone in just 61 days. Such a feat is not so uncommon for a Line game, but it’s interesting to see that the company has decided to support this one with a TV commercial in Japan, especially considering that 70% of its downloads came from outside of Japan (it’s currently the top overall iOS app in Thailand and Laos). You can check out that promotional video which we have included below. As we noted in a previous post, Line Rangers is indeed a great game, but it is very much a rip-off of Battle Cats, the popular tower defense game from Kyoto-based Ponos. If you’d like to try it out, you can get Line Rangers for free on iOS or on Google Play.

Line Corportation corporation recently announced that its Line Rangers game has surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide. The title was initially released back on February 28th, reaching the milestone in just 61 days.

Such a feat is not so uncommon for a Line game, but it’s interesting to see that the company has decided to support this one with a TV commercial in Japan, especially considering that 70% of its downloads came from outside of Japan (it’s currently the top overall iOS app in Thailand and Laos). You can check out that promotional video which we have included below.

As we noted in a previous post, Line Rangers is indeed a great game, but it is very much a rip-off of Battle Cats, the popular tower defense game from Kyoto-based Ponos.

If you’d like to try it out, you can get Line Rangers for free on iOS or on Google Play.

news

Kamcord raises $7M in funding, now lets users share game videos to Line, WeChat

Rick Martin 2014.05.02

San Francisco-based Kamcord announced this morning that it has raised $7.1 million in series A funding, in a round led by Silicon Valley-based TransLink Capital. Other participants included DeNA, SV Angel, Innovation Works, KLab, M&Y Growth Partners, and XG Ventures. Kamcord’s SDK enables game developers to put a ‘movie’ button in game, and when it is pressed, users can then share video clips/replays of game play. Namco Bandai was the first Japanese company to use the localized version of Kamcord’s SDK, as we mentioned back in February. But now we understand that it’s also used in games from DeNA and Colopl. When we spoke with Kamcord co-founder Adi Rathnam last December in Kyoto (see below), he emphasized the importance of Asian markets, including Japan, Korea, and China. We wondered about the possibility of sharing Kamcord videos to Asian message services Line and WeChat, and the sharing functionalities to those networks has now been added. In their announcement this time around, Adi had this to say: In order to build a truly global platform for sharing and watching gameplay videos, we prioritized strengthening our presence in Asia. The partnerships we’ve formed with this round of funding will help us tremendously in…

San Francisco-based Kamcord announced this morning that it has raised $7.1 million in series A funding, in a round led by Silicon Valley-based TransLink Capital. Other participants included DeNA, SV Angel, Innovation Works, KLab, M&Y Growth Partners, and XG Ventures.

Kamcord’s SDK enables game developers to put a ‘movie’ button in game, and when it is pressed, users can then share video clips/replays of game play. Namco Bandai was the first Japanese company to use the localized version of Kamcord’s SDK, as we mentioned back in February. But now we understand that it’s also used in games from DeNA and Colopl.

When we spoke with Kamcord co-founder Adi Rathnam last December in Kyoto (see below), he emphasized the importance of Asian markets, including Japan, Korea, and China. We wondered about the possibility of sharing Kamcord videos to Asian message services Line and WeChat, and the sharing functionalities to those networks has now been added. In their announcement this time around, Adi had this to say:

In order to build a truly global platform for sharing and watching gameplay videos, we prioritized strengthening our presence in Asia. The partnerships we’ve formed with this round of funding will help us tremendously in that effort.

As for Kamcord’s recent progress, we understand that users are now sharing at a pace of one video every two seconds, and that rate is sure to grow with more support for games and gamers here in Asia. The company has also recently launched a new Kamcord app (screenshots above) where you can watch fun mobile gameplay videos all in one place. You can get it for free over on the App Store.

news

Line raises $370K for Japanese quake relief in 6 weeks. With stickers.

Rick Martin 2014.04.23

This past March saw the three year anniversary of the tragic 3.11 earthquake here in Japan. At the time, Line Corporation released a set of stickers to sell on its platform, drawn by kids from the affected regions. The set of 24 stickers, pictured below, were to be sold for 100 yen (or about $1) with proceeds going towards ongoing recovery efforts. According to japan.internet.com this evening, that set of stickers has now raised over 38 million yen (about $370,000) in the six short weeks that they have been available for purchase. Line apparently doesn’t make any money from this, taking only what it needs to handle transaction fees on Apple and Google app stores. The stickers can still be purchased if you’d like to do so, as they’ll be available until September 10 of this year. Line did something similar to assist with Typhoon Haiyan relief in the Philippines last year, raising over $500,000 in that effort. via japan.internet.com

This past March saw the three year anniversary of the tragic 3.11 earthquake here in Japan. At the time, Line Corporation released a set of stickers to sell on its platform, drawn by kids from the affected regions. The set of 24 stickers, pictured below, were to be sold for 100 yen (or about $1) with proceeds going towards ongoing recovery efforts.

According to japan.internet.com this evening, that set of stickers has now raised over 38 million yen (about $370,000) in the six short weeks that they have been available for purchase. Line apparently doesn’t make any money from this, taking only what it needs to handle transaction fees on Apple and Google app stores.

The stickers can still be purchased if you’d like to do so, as they’ll be available until September 10 of this year.

Line did something similar to assist with Typhoon Haiyan relief in the Philippines last year, raising over $500,000 in that effort.

via japan.internet.com

Line

Japan’s Vinclu, holographic virtual assistant developer, acquired by Line

Japan’s Line launches $42 million fund, looking to diversify revenue stream

Line ties up with recruitment company to provide part-time job info to messaging app users

Japan’s Line unveils to launch payments, cab hailing, food delivery services, and much more

Japan’s LINE teams up with Gumi for game distribution while forming own $100M fund for developers

Line reported to submit IPO application to Tokyo Stock Exchange

Line tries to reach beyond casual gamers with ‘Shake Spears’

Line Rangers tops 10M downloads, gets TV promo boost in Japan

Kamcord raises $7M in funding, now lets users share game videos to Line, WeChat

Line raises $370K for Japanese quake relief in 6 weeks. With stickers.

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