● Users can enjoy car and fashion-related benefits, with travel, food, and home décor benefits to follow

● Users consent will always be required before calculating scores or sharing data with partner companies

 

TOKYO – June 27, 2019 – LINE Corporation (“LINE”) announces that its proprietary scoring service LINE Score will be available today through LINE Credit Corporation (“LINE Credit”).*1 LINE Credit itself is a group company of LINE Financial Corporation (“LINE Financial”), provider of LINE’s financial services.

 

*1 LINE Credit is a joint venture established between LINE Financial, Mizuho Bank Ltd. (“Mizuho”) and Orient Corporation (“Orico”).

 

 

Utilizing a proprietary AI-driven scoring model, LINE Score is available to the LINE app’s more than 80 million MAU in Japan, and is easily accessed via the in-app LINE Wallet tab. The service will provide promotions, deals, and a range of other benefits customized to each individual user’s score.

 

Specifically, calculating the overall score involves utilizing data from a user’s activity trends on the LINE platform (such as usage of the LINE app and other LINE Family services) along with additional information from the preliminary questionnaire, and a combination of AI capabilities and Mizuho and Orico’s sophisticated know-how. With the launch of LINE Score, LINE has been able to establish a proprietary scoring platform suited to online financial services.

Additionally, a user’s score will only be calculated after they have given their consent.

 

Background to LINE Score and plans for the future 

With the widespread use of the internet and smartphones, various activities in people’s day-to-day lives are rapidly shifting to the online world. The age of full-scale big data has arrived. Countless businesses are analyzing and utilizing online data to further optimize their services to suit individual interests and preferences, evolving them into better, more useful offerings. Novel and innovative mechanisms and systems also continue to emerge.

 

In addition to the LINE messaging service, LINE offers its over 80 million MAU in Japan a wide range of content, services, and businesses in areas such as AI, O2O, and Fintech. Providing these services has enabled LINE to accumulate a vast amount of big data on a daily basis, leading to its growth as one of the largest big data companies in Japan. 

 

With LINE Score, the proprietary scoring method works by combining big data collected from the LINE platform, and a dozen items of profile information provided by the user in the preliminary questionnaire. Based on this score, users can enjoy more personalized and convenient benefits and experiences, as well as obtain more value from LINE services and its various partners to “enrich their daily life.” 

 

LINE’s huge userbase has made it possible for the company to deliver a more accurately calculated, more tailor-made experience. To offer benefits to even more users in the future, LINE intends to increase the number of partnerships with other companies and services, and expand the value and value-added experiences it offers. 

 

In future, LINE is contemplating applying scoring data to other LINE services to provide an even more convenient and useful system for users. Further, the company is also considering providing scoring data to third parties through API for agreed upon uses, while always respecting user consent and strictly safeguarding personal information.   

 

Going forward, LINE will continue to develop LINE Score into an exceptionally convenient service—striving to securely use and manage data, and provide experiences that will make users’ day-to-day life just a little richer.

 

Features of LINE Score 

1. AI-driven proprietary scoring model

LINE’s proprietary scoring model utilizes (i) data on a user’s activity trends on LINE services and (ii) the additional information provided in the preliminary questionnaire to produce a score between 100 and 1,000 points. Users can check their own scores at any time.

 

2. User consent is always required

Users will be asked to provide their consent before using the LINE Score service. Scoring data and information provided by the user when first using the service will be utilized to calculate scores in future, and for the purposes outlined in LINE Credit’s privacy policy. This data will never be shared with LINE’s partner companies (providers of benefits) without user consent. LINE places protection of user privacy as its highest management priority, and follows a much broader interpretation of personal information than the legal definition. As the company is also especially stringent when it comes to protecting “privacy of communications” (such as messages), the content of communications and messages are not included among data used to calculate scores.

 

3. Benefits based on scores

Special deals, promotions, and a host of other benefits are available to users, with each set of benefits tailored to the individual user’s score. For example, various campaigns held during different periods will offer special deals for sharing and subscription services, including space sharing (such as parking spots and venues), items (such as clothes and accessories), transport (such as cars and bicycles), and skill sharing (such as housekeeping services).

 

This summer in Japan, LINE also plans to add to lineup of benefits with a new unsecured personal loan service, LINE Pocket Money. Under the new service, annual interest rates and credit limits most suitable for an individual user will be determined by their score from the LINE Score service. In the lead-up to the launch, LINE intends to develop a service model that is a go-to option for unplanned expenses, and make it possible to complete the entire process—application, borrowing, and lastly, repayments—on the LINE app. More details will be announced when LINE Pocket Money is released.

 

About LINE Score 

LINE Score is a service that allows users to enjoy special deals, receive gifts, and other benefits that are tailored to their scores. Getting started with the service is straightforward—users simply open the LINE app, go to the LINE Wallet tab, tap on LINE Score and agree to the Terms and Conditions. Scores will increase if the user answers around a dozen preliminary questions, and will also regularly update as more data is acquired on the user’s activity trends within the LINE services. 

 

Calculating scores with the service

Users must consent to the LINE Score Terms and Conditions before they begin using the service. Data will not be calculated by default, or be utilized under a user’s current LINE account settings. Additionally, each time a user makes use of a benefit offered by a partner company, they will need to consent to having their data shared with the company in question.

 

 

Partnering with a diverse range of companies to offer user benefits

To celebrate the launch of LINE Score, users who use the service and obtain a score will be able to participate in the following campaigns.

 

• Campaign launches today: Invitation to the August 23 premiere screening in Japan of the upcoming anime film, Ni no Kuni distributed by Warner Bros (all users are eligible regardless of their score).

• Campaign launches in July: Rent Italian luxury cars for free

• Campaign launches in July: Rent designer French bags for free

• Campaign launches in August: Rent Swiss luxury wristwatches for free

 

More details on the campaigns and promotional periods can be found in the following blog post. 

http://linescore-blog.line.me/

 

Starting today, the following companies will offer an array of special deals, promotions, and other benefits to users via LINE Score.

 

From today to July

• DeNA SOMPO Mobility Co. Ltd.: JPY 5,000 coupon for new users (from today)

• Laxus Technologies Inc.: JPY 3,000 worth of Laxus Points (from today)

• LINE Pay Corporation: Level up in My Level incentive program for users with a score over a certain number (from today)

• Airbnb: JPY 2,000 coupon (from July)

 

Coming soon

• Oisix Ra Daichi Inc.: 60% discount for Oisix package of assorted foods

• Orient Corporation: Benefits for new Orico members and additional 1,000 Orico Points 

• Clover Lab. Inc: 20% off first month (up to JPY 3,960)

• Komehyo Co. Ltd.: Users can enjoy a JPY 1,000 discount when making a purchase worth JPY 5,000 or more, and receive an additional JPY 1,000 when selling item(s) totaling JPY 5,000 or more.

• Stripe International Inc.: New members can rent one additional item for free for first month

• Subsclife Inc.: JPY 5,000 coupon for the first month fee

• DMM.com LLC: JPY 1,000 for DMM’s Iroiro Rental service

• LIFULL Co. Ltd: LIFULL Interior coupon worth JPY 2,000

 

LINE is currently recruiting new companies interested in partnering to provide benefits for LINE Score users. More information can be found at the LINE Partners page below.

https://partners.line.me/ja/partner/join

*Company names are listed in Japanese phonetic order.

*The campaigns listed above may change.

 

About LINE Corporation

Company name: LINE Corporation

Head office: JR Shinjuku Miraina Tower 23F, 4-1-6 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Representative: Takeshi Idezawa, Representative Director

Business: Provision and operation of the LINE messaging app and content and services provided on the LINE platform, other web service businesses and AI businesses

Capital: JPY 96.199 billion (as of March 30, 2019)

Established: September 4, 2000 (trade name changed from NHN Japan Corporation on April 1, 2013)

 

About LINE Credit Corporation (as of June 2019)

Company name: LINE Credit Corporation

Head office: Osaki Garden Tower 22F, 1-1-1 Nishi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo

Representative: Mikihiko Yoshinaga, Representative Director

Business: Provision and operation of scoring services, and development of loan services

Capital and capital reserve: JPY 5 billion 

Shareholding ratio: LINE Financial Corporation: 51%, Mizuho Bank Ltd.: 34%, Orient Corporation: 15%

Established: May 1, 2018

 

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