LINE Corporation, a listed company that operates the major smartphone messaging app LINE in Japan, held a press conference on September 27 concerning detailed specifications and technology for its LINE Token Economy concept. The company announced that it plans to release five decentralized app services (dApps) in the service categories of future prediction, Q&A, product reviews, food reviews, and SNS for locales. LINE also revealed that starting October 16 it will begin offering its own digital token LINK for markets outside Japan through BITBOX, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Singapore.

LINE Corporation was established in Japan in 2000 as a 100% subsidiary of NAVER, a major Korean internet service company. A token economy strives to create a fixed economic bloc through items such as its own cryptocurrency and issued tokens on blockchains. The company will issue original tokens using its own developed blockchain network called LINK Chain, and plans to provide even more diverse services using blockchains in the future.

According to LINE Corporation’s press release, the five introduced dApps are separated into different service categories. 4CAST is an app in which users can enjoy predicting the future as a community. Wizball is a Q&A platform for knowledge-sharing. Pasha is a platform in which users can review and search for products by taking pictures of products nearby. TAPAS is a review platform in which users can share information about dining establishments all around Japan. Finally, STEP (tentative name) is an SNS platform where users can share their memories of locations they visited when traveling or on vacation.

At the time of the announcement, LINE Corporation stated that through providing dApp services, they are aiming to build a world of “co-creation,” in which user actions in the LINE Token Economy receive appropriate evaluation and contribute to service growth. Depending on their contribution to the service, users will be able to earn original points or cryptocurrency as an incentive. LINE Corporation will provide LINK Points for users in Japan and its LINK cryptocurrency for users overseas.

In addition to using LINK Points for dApp services in Japan, users will be able to exchange LINK Points for the existing in-app service LINE points from October, which are converted at one point per Japanese yen. LINE points can be used for transactions on LINE Pay and purchases and transactions for other LINE services. How LINE will popularize LINK Points as “points that utilize the benefits of blockchain technology” is a topic of particular interest in a country where points dominate customer transactions.