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

SCORE 1,873 Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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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

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Line reported to submit IPO application to Tokyo Stock Exchange

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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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.

Line Pop-up Store, Orchard, Singapore
Line Pop-up Store, Orchard, Singapore

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.

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

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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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). As many of our readers know, NHN Japan recently announced that Line has acquired more than 100 million users worldwide in January, and the company reportedly has intentions to grow the app to as many as 300 or 400 million by the end of 2013. In the social media space, that would put it in pretty exclusive company, likely…

nhn-subsidiary-logos

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).

As many of our readers know, NHN Japan recently announced that Line has acquired more than 100 million users worldwide in January, and the company reportedly has intentions to grow the app to as many as 300 or 400 million by the end of 2013. In the social media space, that would put it in pretty exclusive company, likely making it a top five global social network.

For more information on the growth of Line, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.

line-100million-680x362

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