Tokyo, Japan – August 6, 2014 – LINE Corporation, owner and operator of the free call and messaging app LINE, has announced their decision to establish LINE GAME Global Gateway (tentative), an investment fund that will target Japanese domestic game content and game development companies, as part of efforts to expand its Game business. The start date for the establishment and operation of the fund is for September 2014.

LINE, the global communication app, has surpassed a total registered user count of 490 million and continues to expand as a communication infrastructure. With this user base and infrastructure as its foundation, the LINE GAME business, which began in earnest in November 2012, has now reached a total of more than 410 million downloads worldwide and achieved a solid presence as a global platform. This success owes itself not only to in-house developed titles that capitalize on LINE’s proprietary characters, but also to titles that have been developed jointly or in cooperation with external content providers, and the business now offers a total of 40 game titles.

The LINE GAME Global Gateway (tentative) fund was created to signal a new stage in the growth of LINE GAME as a global gaming platform, as well as to further strengthen partnerships with external content providers.

LINE aims to financially support Japanese game development companies that create high-quality content, as well as game content itself, and to actively support international expansion through utilization of the LINE GAME platform in order to create Japanese-developed content successful on the world stage. This will not only allow both LINE and the companies receiving investments from the fund to mutually expand their businesses, but will lead to the construction of a new LINE platform-based ecosystem.

Fund Overview (information current as of now but may be changed in the future)

① 　Name　　　　　     LINE GAME Global Gateway (tentative)

② 　Location　　　       Japan

③ 　Estimated Capital:　 Approximately JPY 10 Billion

④ 　Investors:　　　　   LINE Corporation, LINE Ventures Corporation (tentative)

⑤ 　Period of Operation:  5 years beginning on September 9, 2014

⑥ 　Operating Company: LINE Ventures Corporation (tentative)

Representative: Jun Masuda　

Managing Director: Kiyotaka Eguchi

⑦ 　Main Investment Target: Game content and Japanese game developers aiming to expand globally.

Companies interested in possibly receiving investments from this fund can make inquiries using the following link.

URL: https://partner.line.me/proposal/ja_JP/proposalGuide.nhn