2019.06.17 LINE Pay
● LINE Pay merchants in Japan begin tapping into nearly 7.5 million annual tourists from Korea
● LINE’s strong markets expected to accelerate merchant growth
TOKYO – June 17, 2019 – The LINE Pay mobile money transfer and payment service available on the LINE messaging app begins accepting payments with NAVER Pay from today. Operated by LINE Pay Corporation, the service’s latest integration is part of the LINE Pay Global Alliance concept announced during the LINE Fintech Conference in November 2018.
Press release: LINE Pay Announces LINE Pay Global Alliance to Become No. 1 Payment Service for Inbound Tourism
https://linecorp.com/en/pr/news/en/2018/2516
As a result of the integration, NAVER Pay users can use their NAVER Pay account balance to make QR code payments at LINE Pay affiliates in Japan. This new capability is especially targeting tourists from Korea where NAVER Pay is popular.
Starting today, new merchants signing up for LINE Pay can also accept NAVER Pay as a payment option without any additional registration or screening necessary. Furthermore, payments made with LINE Pay and NAVER Pay can be combined and managed in a single account.
Under the global alliance concept, a single administrative process enables merchants to register as an affiliate of these two payment service providers at once, eliminating the painfully redundant process of having to apply to individual payment service providers separately until now. By accepting NAVER Pay payments in addition to LINE Pay, merchants can cater to tourists from Korea—the second largest group of international travelers in Japan following China.
Integrating NAVER Pay does not require updating POS systems or replacing QR codes. LINE Pay merchants simply use their POS system to scan the NAVER Pay barcode that customers display on their smartphones, or have customers scan the store's QR code using their NAVER Pay code reader. Because the payment process is exactly the same as that of LINE Pay, merchants can easily and smoothly accept payments with NAVER Pay from all customers including tourists from Korea.
To register, visit the LINE Pay Merchant website at https://pay.line.me/jp/intro?locale=en_US.
Existing LINE Pay merchants will also gradually integrate NAVER Pay in phases. Shops that have completed integration will display the NAVER Pay mark.
LINE Pay hopes to boost mobile payments in Japan by increasing efforts to turn the country into a cashless travel destination through global alliances.
User benefits
As a possible scenario, NAVER Pay users from Korea can use their NAVER Pay app to make purchases at LINE Pay affiliates in Japan. During their trip, Korean travelers can feel at home, shopping with their usual NAVER Pay account balance that they use to make day-to-day purchases, and eliminate the hassle of having to buy yen or use other payment options just for their trip.
Merchant benefits
In 2018, approximately 7.5 million tourists from Korea visited Japan, making Korea the second largest group of international tourists in Japan following China. (Source: Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)) Meanwhile, NAVER Pay is Korea's leading mobile payment service provider with the largest number of users. 30 million people, or 58% of Korea's total population, use NAVER Pay to make mobile payments, averaging a total of 38 million payment transactions a month. These NAVER Pay users are now potential customers for LINE Pay merchants in Japan as well as a chance to boost mobile payments in their stores. To put it another way, inbound tourism will become another key revenue source for LINE Pay merchants—another reason to implement LINE Pay as a payment option to accommodate the growing mobile payment trend in Japan. Furthermore, the application and settlement processes are streamlined so that using multiple payment options will not impose any inefficient procedures on merchants.
User safety and security
The partnership scope between LINE Pay and NAVER Pay will enable NAVER Pay users to make purchases from LINE Pay merchants in Japan by scanning the QR code the merchants display at the POS. This involves connecting to NAVER Pay's payment system. User information is always contained within the service used to make a purchase, and never shared between the platforms.
NAVER Pay
Operator: NAVER Corporation
Platform: NAVER
Daily active users (DAU): 30 million (mobile)
LINE Pay closes the distance between people, money, and services by eliminating existing pain-points – time, effort, fees, and more – of circulating money. The company also aims to lead the mobile Fintech industry as the world moves increasingly towards a cashless and walletless society.
LINE Pay Corporation overview (as of April 2019)
Company name: LINE Pay Corporation
Head office: Sumitomo Fudosan Osaki Garden Tower 22F, 1-1-1 Nishishinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Yongsu Ko, Representative Director and Chief Executive Officer
Capital: JPY 13.6 billion
Established: May 9, 2014
Primary businesses: Issuance, sale, and management of electronic money and other types of electronic value information and advance payment methods, provision of electronic settlement systems, fund transfer business, sale and management of LINE Official Accounts, operation of LINE Kakeibo, service development, and advertising agency business
LINE Pay Corporation is a registered member of the following organization and has obtained the following registrations in association with the launch of its business:
- Issuers of Prepaid Payment Instruments for Third-Party Business (Registration number: Director of the Kanto Finance Bureau 00669, Registration date: October 1, 2014)
- Funds Transfer Service Providers (Registration number: Director of the Kanto Finance Bureau 00036, Registration date: October 1, 2014)
- Japan Payment Service Association (http://www.s-kessai.jp, Admission date: August 6, 2014)
- Electronic Payment Service Provider (Registration number: Director of the Kanto Finance Bureau [Electronic Payment Service Provider] No. 10, Registration date: December 20, 2018)