Line Corp. President Takeshi Idezawa said that while his company proceeds in its merger with Z Holdings Corp., which operates Yahoo Japan, he is taking a cautious approach toward integrating the two firms' smartphone payment apps.
"There is no point in forcing the integration," Idezawa said in an exclusive interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The two companies agreed on the merger in as early as October.
Line Pay and ZHD's PayPay have a combined total of 60 million users, by far the largest in Japan. Looking at the future of the two companies' smartphone payments, Idezawa said, "There is nothing definite," while also expressing that he is closely looking at integration.
Regarding the cashback program that has intensified competition in smartphone payment services, Idezawa said: "At some stage, it will be more a matter of [the app's] convenience than the benefits of cashback. We are smoothly entering that phase."
Idezawa said the company plans to expand Line's services, mainly in the financial sector.
As for the future, "We're looking at competition among three or four companies," he said, citing industry realignment and other factors.
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