LINE: Japan's most popular chat app integrates cryptocurrencies
The free chat app LINE currently has 168 million users who regularly communicate about it. As reported by the Japan Times , the operating company is currently negotiating with several companies to integrate cryptocurrencies into the mobile payment service LINE Pay. After the announcement, the shares of the company shot up.
The Line Corp. operates the most popular chat software on portable devices in Japan. According to insider information, negotiations are currently underway with several companies not named by name in order to integrate cryptocurrencies into the portable payment service LINE Pay . Not only is the popularity of the app to be increased. Users should also be tempted to return to this app again and again. LINE Pay is also available to German users, but at the moment it can only be paid with one of the recognized credit cards. The payment platform LINE Pay was founded in 2014 and currently works with 30 Japanese banks. More than 30 million Japanese pay. The value is currently estimated at 10.75 billion US dollars.According to information from the intelligence service Bloomberg negotiations are currently underway with representatives of the South Korean trading platform UPbit . Officially, nobody wanted to take a stand. After the announcement of this rumor from anonymous circles, the stock shot up in the short term by 10%. In December last year it was claimed that UPbit had even overtaken the trading volume of the market leader Bithump . UPbit is trading more than 120 different crypto currencies as a result of working with Bittrex .
The management of LINE hopes with the new feature to gain a competitive advantage over the social networks Facebook and Snapchat, especially since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently brought the topic of crypto-currencies themselves into conversation. Most users of the app live in Thailand, Taiwan and Japan. They usually send cute or expressive Hello Kitty-style stickers to their contacts and use LINE for food ordering, job hunting or watching video streams. Since this often requires paid services, the integration of crypto currencies appears logical as a new payment option.
LINE well rated in tests, ekes in this country a niche existence
The German press praises the possibility that you can use this chat app, without the software as with WhatsApp and other competitors, compulsory to grant access to the phone book of your own smartphone. Also praised in tests that in the business model of Line Corp. the collection and analysis of user behavior is not yet planned. This software does not have to hide in comparison to the competition when it comes to chat with the app or make phone calls. The free software is cross-platform for tablet PCs and smartphones with Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry as well as in the desktop version for Windows and Mac OS X available, In addition, the app is also available as an extension for the browser Chrome. The only downside is the small number of European users. For a chat or a phone call, of course, both communication partners must have installed this app.