Boku, Japan’s LINE Pay Team To Power Up Mobile Sales

Mobile payments firm Boku plans to partner with Japan’s LINE Pay, a money transfer service, to allow the more than 37 million LINE Pay users in Japan to pay for merchant digital goods and services through the Boku platform.

Both the public and private sectors are “taking action to shift Japan’s long-standing cash society toward a cashless one,” said Hisahiro Chofuku, CEO and president of LINE Pay, in a press release. “By joining forces with Boku, we’re aiming to expand LINE Pay’s services even further and do our part in advancing Japan’s cashless movement.”

“We are extremely pleased to be an integral and strategic partner with LINE Pay in enabling the acceleration of digital commerce and cashless payments in Japan,” said Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku. “Together, we can make mobile transactions simpler.”

San Francisco-based Boku said its company is a good match for LINE Pay, one of Japan’s largest digital wallet and QR code payment service providers.

In a recent PYMNTS interview with Prideaux, the CEO said Boku did about $5 billion in carrier billing services in 2019 and had surpassed $2.6 billion less than halfway through 2020.

From its outset, carrier billing offered consumers the ability to purchase digital goods without having to fumble with entering a 16-digit credit card number. Sellers also got access to a wider range of consumers, while telcos enjoyed an extra revenue stream.

Now, Prideaux said, carrier billing is expanding to include “carrier bundling,” a one-time sideline that’s quickly becoming the sector’s fastest-growing segment.

LINE Pay has also been on a roll. The company has been integrating WeChat Pay to be used with participating merchants in Japan.

Now, WeChat Pay users can “simply scan a Japanese LINE Pay merchant’s QR code to pay with their WeChat Pay balance,” LINE Pay announced. “Since WeChat Pay is heavily used in China, the service will be particularly convenient for Chinese tourists visiting Japan.”