Line Corporation
Line Corporation was a Japanese internet company best known for the Line messaging app and related services like Line Music, Line Manga, and Line Pay. It began in 2000 as Hangame Japan, the Japanese arm of the South Korean game company Hangame (NHN). It was renamed NHN Japan in 2003 and became Line Corporation in 2013.
The company grew with a dual listing in 2016, going public on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It later delisted in 2020 ahead of major corporate changes. In 2021, Line merged with Yahoo Japan under Z Holdings, the SoftBank-Naver joint venture, creating a larger tech group.
In 2023, Z Holdings and Yahoo Japan merged and were renamed Line Yahoo Corporation. Line Corporation transferred most of its assets to Line Yahoo Corporation and changed its own name to LY Corporation, acting as a holding company for Line’s overseas subsidiaries. Line has also expanded into financial services, including Line Bank, launched in Taipei in 2021. The goal of the merged group is to compete with global tech giants and extend Line’s reach across Asia and beyond.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 10:18 (CET).