SoftBank Pairs PayPay, LINE Pay Apps Together With Merger

Z Holdings Corporation (ZHD Group), which operates the PayPay app, has announced a merger with LINE, according to a Monday (March 1) press release.

Z Holdings Parent company SoftBank and LINE parent firm NAVER have been involved in a series of transactions with the intent of getting the merger underway.

The release says the services of PayPay and LINE Pay will be “merged at the merchant level,” with that starting in late August, allowing users to make payments with LINE Pay.

In addition, discussions are being held on possibly integrating LINE’s QR and barcode payment applications as well.

ZHD Group has 23,000 employees and is one of Japan’s largest internet corporations. The group covers three sources of actions which the release calls indispensable to daily life — information, payment and communication.

The merger will come with new innovations such as a new social commerce app to let users buy and send gifts, watch live streaming performances and more. One feature associated with this app will be “X (Cross) Shopping,” which will link product data of stores, both online and physical, allowing users to choose which purchase method best suits their needs.

Also, new “smart stores” will be developed to provide EC solutions for business operators like construction, operation and analysis of their own websites. Customer service and traffic referral will be available too. The company also intends to design a mechanism letting companies manage and operate physical stores, their eCommerce sites, social media sites and other such things in one app.

In spite of Japan being home to one of the world’s first mobile commerce inventions, the DotCoMo digital wallet in 2004, the country has remained a primarily cash-based economy.

Darren Abrahamson, managing director of Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in August that Japan has a subset of older people who will never go digital, but younger people could be slowly swayed to the digital side with new apps and developments.