By Bahk Eun-ji
Naver said Monday that it will launch LINE Pay, a mobile payment service, as early as this week in Japan.
The nation’s largest portal said the service is in line with the Japan-based mobile service affiliate’s plan to expand global services.
LINE Pay is a new mobile payment service allowing users to register their credit cards on their accounts on LINE for payments. The users of the LINE app service will be able to pay the pre-deposited cash, using their bank accounts.
It also has a “Dutch Pay” function, in which more than two users of LINE can pay together for one item. Similar to Bank Wallet Kakao, Users can also transfer money to each other without using their bank accounts.
The spokeswoman said, however, it has not decided yet to launch the payment service in Korea.
“LINE is more famous globally compared to KakaoTalk. So the payment service will be launched in the global market first,” the company official added.
LINE also launched “LINE Wow,” a delivery service in Japan. The service covers restaurants in Tokyo and will gradually expand to cover other regions and products.
“LINE Taxi,” a taxi calling app similar to Uber, will kick off in Tokyo. It allows users to pay using LINE pay.
LINE had 560 million global users as of Oct. 9, with 54 million of them in Japan. Thailand, Taiwan, and Spain accounted for 33 million, 17 million, and 18 million users, respectively.