LINE Announces “LINE SCALEUP” to Help Thai Startups SCALE on LINE Platform and Develop New Services for Thai Users

BANGKOK – March 21, 2018 – LINE announced the launch of “LINE SCALEUP,” a program aimed at helping Thai startups to scale their services to millions of LINE users potentially. LINE SCALEUP will provide 1) LINE Messaging API (on LINE@ account) free of charge with an upgrade path to an Official Account worth THB 5,000,000 2) tech consultation with the LINE Engineering team 3) and funding opportunities with a USD 10 million fund for Thailand.

As today onwards, LINE SCALEUP program opens its application all year round for any startups who has potential on developing a new product/service integrated on
LINE platform efficiently by providing LINE@ Pro+ account with LINE Messaging API as the main tool to develop a product/service along with technical support from
the LINE Engineering team. All of these benefits will be offered differently to certain startups upon each team’s capabilities and performance.

Mr. Ariya Banomyong, Managing Director, LINE Thailand said “The majority of Thai startups nowadays are still at the seed level, and Thailand still lacks a unicorn, or major startups going regional or global. One significant missing factor is scalability. Among the excessive number of apps created for both Google Play (28 million) and App Store (22 million), most users only download 32 apps for their phone, and even then they only use 3-5 regularly. As a result, users face an ‘app overflow,’ while developers and startups struggle to get their apps noticed. The vision of LINE SCALEUP is to help Thai startups scale, leveraging LINE’s 42 million users and 63 mins/day time-spent, and develop an eco-system of services for Thai users on LINE. ”.

“Based on traction and potential, some startups under ‘LINE SCALEUP’ might become strategic partners co-developing LINE services. We have also set up a USD 10 million fund for Thailand, and we are interested in acquiring Thai startups eventually,” added Ariya.

Mr. Peerapol Sa-ngamuang, Head of New Services, LINE Thailand added “There are several successful cases of using LINE Messaging API both from LINE services ourselves and external partners, e.g., SCB Connect (providing transaction notifications, account balance, points balance within LINE), Botnoi (a Thai/English, English/Thai chat bot translator), LINE Horoscope (consulting your personalize horoscope in LINE), LINE Jobs (searching and applying to more than 5,000 jobs in LINE), etc… However, with the endless possibility of LINE Messaging API and the different behaviors of users in LINE platform, we would like to see more initiative and creative idea of products/services from Thai startups. Through our program, LINE will work with startups to build incredible services on LINE platform and support startups to SCALE to another level with all the support LINE can provide.”

For further details, and registering to LINE SCALEUP, visit the official website https://scaleup.line.me

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ABOUT LINE Corporation

Based in Japan, LINE Corporation (NYSE:LN/TSE:3938) is dedicated to the mission of “Closing the Distance,” bringing together information, services and people. The LINE messaging app launched in June 2011 and since then has grown into a diverse, global ecosystem that includes camera apps, AI technology, and more.

Learn more about LINE at http://linecorp.com/th/