K-netizens respond to Japanese officials trying to take away the LINE app from Naver

LY Corporation recently held a regular shareholders' meeting where they announced their intent to separate from Naver. 

LINE, developed in June 2011 by Korean companies Naver and Hangame under their subsidiary NHN Japan, is Japan's most popular messaging app. It boasts over 700 million users worldwide. Currently, LINE is owned by LY Corporation (Line Yahoo Corporation), a joint venture between Japan's SoftBank Group and Naver Corporation.

LY Corporation has replaced all the board members with people of Japanese nationality and is accelerating the process of ending its relationship with Naver. However, they did not clarify their stance on changes in capital relations.

According to the Nikkei newspaper on June 18, LY Corporation revealed plans during the meeting to terminate or reduce the service development and operation tasks that were previously entrusted to Naver.

Takehi Idezawa, CEO of Yahoo! Japan, stated, "We will complete the separation of our employee systems and authentication bases from Naver Cloud by the end of this year and expedite the separation of our subsidiary's Naver systems, which was initially scheduled for 2026. Additionally, we will end the entrusted relationship with Naver in nearly all service business areas for Japanese services."

The company explained that this move signifies the end of their cooperative efforts with Naver in search development and authentication on the Yahoo! Japan website.

Earlier, LY Corporation announced the termination of the Line Pay service in Japan and plans to transfer the remaining balances to PayPay, which is a service operated by SoftBank.

CEO Idezawa did not address the much-anticipated topic of capital relations with Naver during the meeting.

At the shareholders' meeting, LY Corporation restructured its board to ensure a majority of outside directors. The board changed from four internal directors and three external directors to two internal directors and four external directors. This restructuring is seen as an effort to strengthen LY Corporation's management independence and to clarify its separation from Naver.

Shin Joong Ho, the only Naver representative at LY Corporation, stepped down as Chief Product Officer (CPO). The new board members are all Japanese and represent SoftBank's interests.

The two internal directors, Kintaro Kawabe, Chairman of LY Corporation, and Takeshi Idezawa, CEO of LY Corporation, were reappointed.

Currently, Naver and SoftBank each hold 50% of the shares in LY Corporation. If Naver sells even one share of LY Corporation, SoftBank will become the largest shareholder and take control. Negotiations over the shares between Naver and SoftBank are expected to be prolonged.

Korean netizens reacted:
"That's so crazy."

"This is so annoying."

"How can they take away LINE like that?"

"Wow."

"But Naver made LINE, how can this be?"

"Scammers."

"LOL."

"Ridiculous."

"I hope they're ruined."

"Reminds me of the Japanese colonial days."

"I can't believe they are taking this away."

"They're stealing."