Strengthening Collaboration with Yahoo and Acquisition of an Equity Stake

「From November 2023, we began offering the new membership service LYP Premium as a cross-use initiative. Through the service, which provides the benefits previously offered under Yahoo! Premium as well as benefits making the LINE app more enjoyable and convenient, we aim to attract new members and expand use of services across the LINEヤフー group.」

「As one initiative to accelerate the creation of synergies, we began offering LYP Mileage from March 2023. When users purchase eligible products with PayPay at eligible stores offline or at eligible stores on Yahoo! Shopping online and reach the purchase amount set for each product, they receive benefits such as PayPay Points.」

「From October 2022, Yahoo! Shopping and PayPay Mall were integrated and relaunched as the new Yahoo! Shopping, combining the strengths of both services. The design was substantially revised to make it easier to find products, and new benefits and campaigns for SoftBank and Y!mobile users and Yahoo! Premium members will be launched in connection with the relaunch. This is intended to improve the user purchasing experience and drive growth in commerce.」

「As an initiative to create synergies, from July 2022 the restaurant reservation service PayPayグルメ operated by ヤフー㈱ strengthened its collaboration with LINE㈱ and began offering course reservations at participating restaurants through LINEで予約, a service that allows users to easily make restaurant reservations on LINE.」

「From April 2022, Zホールディングス㈱ established and appointed area CPOs (chief product officers) to promote products in each business area, with the aim of strengthening the management structure for product growth. The company is accelerating decision-making and business development and focusing on creating cross-business synergies. In addition, the number of users of LINE Bank, a banking service operated in Taiwan by LINE Bank Taiwan Limited, an equity-method affiliate of our company, exceeded 1.1 million one year after the service began in April 2021.」

「From October 2021, Yahoo! Ads Display Ads (managed) provided by ヤフー㈱ began delivering ads to the LINE NEWS placement of LINE Ads, a managed advertising platform provided by LINE㈱. As a result, advertisers using Yahoo! Ads Display Ads (managed) can also deliver ads to the LINE NEWS placement of LINE Ads, reaching LINE NEWS users, whose monthly active users exceed approximately 77 million, with products, services and campaigns.」

「From July 2021, ヤフー㈱ strengthened its integration of Yahoo! Shopping with the communications app LINE and began accepting applications from all stores listed on Yahoo! Shopping to open official LINE accounts. Official LINE accounts are business account services using LINE, which has 89 million users (Note 12). Stores can communicate with users who have added them as friends, helping them build ongoing relationships with users and create sales opportunities.」

「Our subsidiary Zホールディングス㈱ became Japan's largest internet-services group through its March 2021 management integration with LINE㈱, contributing to the diversification of our group's revenue sources. We will continue deepening our collaboration with Zホールディングス㈱ and seek to maximize synergies.」

「From November 2020, we began offering a new feature on the online shopping mall PayPay Mall operated by ヤフー㈱, allowing customers to purchase products held at participating stores' physical locations and collect them at a nearby physical store or have them delivered.」

「During the first six months of the current consolidated fiscal year, Zホールディングス㈱, Zフィナンシャル㈱ and our company decided to unify the names of the six financial-services companies under their respective umbrellas and the names of the services they provide under the PayPay brand sequentially from 2021 onward.」

「During the first quarter of the current consolidated fiscal year, beginning in April 2020, we launched the premium online shopping mall PayPay Mall operated by ヤフー㈱ and the flea-market app PayPayフリマ, which provides a smooth flea-market experience, as mini-apps that can be accessed easily from the top screen of the PayPay app.」

「We aim to provide many customers with attractive and convenient services through smartphones by leveraging the foundation of our group's telecommunications business and the customer base and big data of the Zホールディングス group, one of Japan's largest internet-service user bases.」

「Following the conversion into a subsidiary, the group as a whole will be able to promote non-telecommunications businesses, including FinTech, in an integrated and proactive manner, allocate management resources optimally based on an integrated strategy, and maximize synergies.」

「We subscribed for the third-party allotment conducted by ヤフー㈱ with a payment date of 27 June 2019, making ヤフー㈱ our subsidiary.」

「Furthermore, in June 2019, with the aim of making ヤフー㈱, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., a consolidated subsidiary, we subscribed for new shares issued by ヤフー㈱ through a third-party allotment with us as the allottee.」

「In addition, through collaboration with ヤフー㈱, whose parent company is SoftBank Group Corp., as is ours, we are working to provide value unique to our company. Specifically, we are seeking to improve satisfaction among our smartphone users through campaigns awarding up to 10% in T Points (Note 4) when they purchase products on Yahoo! Shopping and other services, and by providing Yahoo! Premium benefits free of charge through integration with Yahoo! JAPAN IDs. To strengthen our business relationship with ヤフー㈱, on 9 August 2018 we acquired some of the common shares of ヤフー㈱ owned by Altaba Inc. through a tender offer. Following the tender offer, our voting rights ratio in ヤフー㈱ became 12.08% (Note 5).」