After a record-setting IPO, LINE Pay is betting on new financial services, advertising, and overseas markets to sustain growth.
LINE Pay has long been a leader in Taiwan’s highly fragmented mobile payments market, thanks to its large user base and brand recognition.
The Naver-owned (though rooted in Japan) third-party payments platform has about 13.1 million registered users, according to the semi-governmental Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC) — nearly twice as many as its major competitors. Like LINE Bank, a separate entity but also owned by South Korea’s Naver, LINE Pay benefits from the dominance of the LINE messaging app, which has about 22 million monthly active users in Taiwan.
“The LINE Pay platform has a clear scale advantage over domestic rivals such as iPASS, JKOPay, and PXPay,” says Robin Hu, an MIC industry analyst.
LINE Pay reported record financial results in 2024, with revenue climbing to NT$6.29 billion and net profit reaching NT$647 million, according to the company’s 2024 annual report. Hu notes that though profit remains modest, 2024’s figure represents nearly a sixfold increase from NT$150 million in 2021.
Hu identifies three key strategies that have allowed LINE Pay to thrive in a low-margin, ultra-competitive business. First, the LINE messaging app entered Taiwan’s market in 2011 with a winning strategy of offering free stickers to attract users and paid stickers to generate revenue. The app quickly overtook local rivals and established a dominant communications platform.
Second, LINE Pay established successful partnerships with large incumbent financial institutions, notably CTBC Bank, with which it offers a popular credit card. Third, LINE invested about NT$347 million in iPASS (a company with roots in Taiwan’s mass transit system) in 2018 to leverage its e-payment license. That move enabled LINE Pay to penetrate the e-payment market without undergoing a lengthy license application process.
At the same time, LINE Pay has continued to grow healthily even as LINE introduced a fully licensed digital bank in 2021. “LINE Pay and LINE Bank serve different financial layers in the same ecosystem,” says Zennon Kapron, director of the Singapore-based fintech consultancy GL Insight. He notes that LINE Pay is a digital wallet designed for fast, low-friction payments, particularly for small-ticket retail and peer-to-peer transactions. LINE Bank, on the other hand, is a licensed deposit-taking institution that handles everything from savings accounts to loans.
“Where they complement each other is in the user lifecycle,” he says. “LINE Pay gets people used to transacting digitally within the LINE ecosystem, and LINE Bank can then upsell more structured financial products to those same users.” The data flows also help as insights on spending behavior from LINE Pay can inform credit scoring for LINE Bank loans.
“As long as they maintain a seamless UX (user experience) and clear branding, there’s more synergy than overlap,” Kapron says.
Post-IPO push
In December 2024, LINE Pay made its debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, opening at NT$508 a share and closing slightly higher at NT$509. It marked the first time a LINE-branded service outside Japan had gone public.
“With its public debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, LINE Pay Taiwan aims to transform from being a payment provider into a global payment marketing platform,” Jeong Woong-ju, chairman and CEO of LINE Pay Taiwan, said in a press release. “While strengthening our domestic services, LINE Pay Taiwan plans to venture into overseas markets to explore new business opportunities.” This vision, he said, will be made possible by focusing on cross-border payments in both inbound and outbound businesses.
Nearly a decade after setting up shop in Taiwan, LINE Pay’s IPO marked a crucial step in securing additional funding to support business expansion, market development, and R&D investment.
“In terms of business development, since 83% of LINE Pay’s revenue comes from transaction fees, which are a low-margin business, the company is moving to expand into higher-margin areas such as financial services and advertising,” MIC’s Hu says.
Since the market debut roughly 10 months ago, LINE Pay’s shares have performed well — a reflection of investors’ confidence in the company, despite a jittery global economy. At the time of writing, shares trade at about NT$597, above its IPO price.
LINE Pay received a further boost in June, when the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) approved its application to launch a standalone e-payment app, LINE Pay Money. The FSC said the new app will be permitted to offer small-value domestic remittances and loyalty point payments, while local media reports that it may also relay payment instructions between users and merchants.
LINE Pay Money will be regulated by the FSC, as e-payment services fall under its purview. In contrast, third-party payment platforms are overseen by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, a distinction that could affect how compliance standards and market opportunities are shaped.
Looking ahead, LINE Pay will also need to keep a wary eye on its rivals. “JKoPay and Taiwan Pay are probably the most serious rivals to LINE Pay right now,” says Kapron of GL Insight. He notes that JKoPay has built a massive offline merchant network, particularly in night markets, small shops, and rural areas where LINE Pay has less penetration. This grassroots reach contrasts with LINE Pay’s strength in urban and online environments.
For its part, Taiwan Pay, backed by a consortium of domestic banks and the government, has institutional momentum, pushing hard on QR code standardization and fee reductions that appeal to merchants. With regulatory tailwinds and a focus on interoperability, Taiwan Pay is gaining ground quickly.
“LINE Pay still leads in terms of brand and user engagement, but these challengers are coming at it from opposite ends: one with grassroots scale, the other with policy support,” Kapron says.
