Line Next, a web3 module of the Japanese messaging app Line, has been developed $140 million in its funding led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a Peter Thiel-backed private equity firm in South Korea, to expand its web3 platform.
The new funding comes nearly a year after Line Next launched its browser-only beta service — a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace launched on the non-fungible token (NFT) platform DOSI. With the previous DOSI release, Line Next focused on “measuring capabilities for various web3 services, such as NFT platforms, avatar features, games and entertainment,” Woosuk Kim, Line Next’s director of operations, told TechCrunch.
The company plans to use the new capital to launch its official NFT DOSI platform and web3 services in January next year. These include the launch of DOSI’s mobile app, which will be available to global users, and the integration of games and more than 100 LINE NFT partners in Japan into the DOSI platform. In addition, it will offer a new development tool to help Web 2 brands transform into web3 digital products and give users ownership to market their products directly on DOSI. Line Next will also release a new social networking app that will allow users to communicate via AI avatars and start new web3 games using Line’s Brown and Friends character.
“For the full launch in January, we’re increasing our services offering, adding digital products for brand subscriptions and expanding content, event tickets and games,” Kim told TechCrunch. “We also plan to add important, international mobile payment options beyond Naver Pay and LINE Pay.”
Line Next wants to “popularize” web3 for everyone, Kim continued. “We target all users who own or want to own valuable digital products, including app users, gamers, consumers and entertainment users.”
When asked about the downturn in the NFT market and possible resurgence after the NFT boom in 2021 and 2022, the company “believes that NFTs will become a new standard for valuable digital goods,” Kim said, adding that, “In the early stages of the NFT market, there were many speculative products in the industry … and we aim to build and expand this market [again].”
Image Credits: Line Next’s DOSI
During the product beta period, the company has amassed 5.5 million users worldwide, making more than 470,000 cumulative transactions. Founded in 2021, Line Next generates revenue by charging users platform fees, the company said, adding that it will create additional revenue models in the process of publishing, distributing and marketing digital products.
One of the things that sets Line Next apart from its competitors is its global infrastructure and expertise based on its global services, Kim noted. And, Line Next will provide its services on its public blockchain networkFinschiawhich is 400x faster in transaction speed and 98% lower network usage fee than Ethereum.
Line Next Korea manages the web3 business strategy, while Line Next US manages the NFT platform business.
Last year, Line Next grew $10 million in strategic investment from ten companies such as SoftBank Corporation, Naver, Naver Webtoon, Naver Z, Line Games, CJ ENM, YG Plus, Hashed, Shinsegae and K Auction. Line Next is 100% owned. LY Corporation, a merger of SoftBank Group’s Z Holdings and four subsidiaries, including Line Corporation and Yahoo! Japan.
