Japan’s Line Yahoo has announced the phased discontinuation of its mobile payment service, Line Pay, consolidating it under SoftBank’s PayPay in a strategic move to streamline operations and possibly reduce the influence of South Korean tech giant Naver.
On Jun. 13, Line Yahoo announced that it would gradually discontinue the Line Pay service by Apr. 30, 2025. New user registrations will only be possible until Nov. of this year. After that, users will be able to transfer their Line Pay balances to PayPay. This service discontinuation is limited to Japan; users in Thailand, Taiwan, and other regions will continue to use Line Pay without any changes.
Launched in Japan in 2014, Line Pay attracted over 44 million registrants over the past decade. However, Line Pay announced that in the process of seeking a business direction for the next 10 years, it aims to enhance group synergy by restructuring services and unifying overlapping businesses.
Following the launch of Line Pay, SoftBank and Yahoo Japan jointly created PayPay in 2018. The two services engaged in fierce competition within Japan’s simple payment market, spending millions of yen on marketing.
In 2019, under the vision of “integrating management operation through unification,” Naver’s Line and SoftBank joined forces, bringing their operations “under one roof.” Since then, the joint mega-platform, now known as Line Yahoo, has expanded service integration, allowing Line Pay to be used at PayPay merchants.
In Japan, where cash payments are notably preferred, PayPay holds a high market share in the cashless market. Research shows that over 60% of Japan’s simple payment users use PayPay. Rakuten Pay ranks second with about 30%, while Line Pay’s market share is known to be lower.
Line Yahoo asserts that it has been promoting unification for some time. A representative from Line Plus, the Korean subsidiary, stated, “Discussions about unifying Line Pay and PayPay have been ongoing and are aimed at optimizing management.”
However, they declined to disclose the specific timing of the unification. Earlier, on the 4th, Line Yahoo announced the liquidation of ‘Line Biz Plus’, the Korean entity operating fintech services like Line Pay and Line Wallet. This has led to speculation that the restructuring might be part of a SoftBank-led overhaul of Line Yahoo’s governance structure.
