Line Corporation executives announced the new initiatives and features at Line Conference 2018, the sixth iteration of the convention, held at the Maihama Amphitheater in Greater Tokyo late last month.

Line Corporation chief executive officer Takeshi Idezawa said the theme of this year’s conference was “Redesign”, saying that Line aimed to rearrange its business concept in entertainment, media, business, commerce, AI and financial sectors.

“A significant paradigm shift is about to happen, the biggest paradigm shift since the advent of the internet,” he said at the conference.

Special emphasis was placed on the AI and financial sectors, where Line is entering into partnerships with leading Japanese companies in order to expand its offerings.

Hisahiro Chofuku, director and chief operating officer of LINE Pay Corporation, announced that Line Pay would team up with QUICPay, a subsidiary of Japanese credit card company JCB that specializes in contactless payment.

LINE Pay was launched as an online payment service in December 2014 and currently has over 40 million registered users worldwide.

By partnering with QUICPay, Line Pay will be available at around 720 thousand QUICPay merchants across Japan, getting it close to its goal of one million stores accepting Line Pay by the end of the year.

“Line Pay will change Japan’s payment environment and help it transition into a cashless society,” Chofuku said.

Idezawa also announced that Line plans to establish a cryptocurrency exchange called BITBOX in July 2018. BITBOX will offer more than 30 highly demanded cryptocurrencies for global users, with support in 15 languages.

However, BITBOX will not be available in Japan and the United States because of regulatory considerations.

“As a key part of LINE’s new financial services, BITBOX shows our commitment to fulfilling the growing demand for more diverse financial options,” he said. “With BITBOX, LINE users will be able to access cryptocurrencies more easily, while also being assured of state-of-art security measures to protect their assets.”

Meanwhile on the AI side of things, Line Corporation chief strategy and marketing officer Jun Masuda announced expansions to the company’s AI assistant Clova.

Line launched Clova, which is similar to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, last year, together with speakers shaped like Line Friends characters.

This year, Masuda said that Line would open the Clova platform to the public by releasing the Clova Extension Kit, a development kit for building and scaling Clova skills, in July.

Skills created by external partners and developers using the Clova Extension Kit will be made available to general users through the Clova Skills Store, expected to be launched in or after the second half of July.

At the conference, Masuda also demonstrated technology that allowed Clova’s voice to be changed to that of celebrities, characters, and even the user’s own voice.

Finally, he also announced that Line would be partnering with Japanese car giant Toyota to create Clova Auto, which enables the use of Clova in cars by connecting it to the in-vehicle device.

“Even while driving, you will be able to use your voice to do daily tasks safely,” he said.

Clova Auto will first be implemented in Toyota vehicles and will be available for use to customers who choose the Clova compatible in-vehicle device in the new car models that will be released from Toyota starting this winter.

Popular

Prabowo begins third year with tighter grip as public support slips

Power for the people

‘I’m sorry’: Indonesians apologize, urge foreign pressure over haze