On March 1, 2021, Yahoo! JAPAN’s parent company Z Holdings Corporation (hereafter, ZHD) completed the business integration with LINE Corporation.
Through this business integration, which was announced in November 2019, we will not only focus on the core areas of “search/portal,” “advertising,” and “messenger,” but also on “commerce” and “local verticals,” which have major social issues. ”, “ Fintech ”, and “Society” as four areas of focus, and by combining data and AI technology, we will work on updating users’ daily lives, corporate activities, and society.
The total number of ZHD and LINE users exceeds 300 million worldwide. With the power of information technology, the company will expand the use of AI to improve the user’s experience value.
Table of contents
- Utilize AI in all services
- Supporting DX in the food and travel industry
- The three pillars of government DX, disaster prevention, and healthcare
- Management Strategy Aiming to Be a World-Leading AI Company
- Invest 500 billion yen in 5 years and mobilize 5,000 people
- A solution box that responds to the voice of the people
Utilize AI in all services
Supporting DX in the food and travel industry
In the field of “local verticals” such as restaurant reservations and travel reservations, we will work to solve problems by supporting DX. With the participation of LINE, ZHD will have various services such as “Yahoo! Loco” and “Ikyu.com Restaurant”.
We aim to support DX by using AI to support the improvement of reservations, attracting customers, and matching systems. In addition, we plan to launch a new service called “LINE PLACE” within the LINE app. This will make it possible to search for restaurants and other shops on LINE and make reservations directly.
The three pillars of government DX, disaster prevention, and healthcare
In the social field, we will focus on the three pillars of “administration DX”, “disaster prevention”, and “healthcare”, and will work to support domestic DX and solve social issues by leveraging public-private partnerships and sometimes private-private partnerships.
Currently, administrative procedures such as child and nursing care allowances and moving are done on paper. As in the past, these procedures are mainly documented. ZHD is aiming for a world where it can be easily done with a smartphone so that you can apply for services online, and we will expand it one by one.
We also aim to support DX in terms of disaster prevention. You will be able to visualize evacuation guidance and disaster images so that you can evacuate on your personal timeline in preparation for a disaster. Yahoo! and LINE are services that are used by many people, so we are preparing to be able to use them at any time.
In healthcare, an online medical platform will be realized, and a service will be developed that allows online procedures from examination to medication guidance and delivery of medicine. ZHD will make telemedicine convenient and familiar through DX support.
Management Strategy Aiming to Be a World-Leading AI Company
ZHD will work to improve the experience value of users by making full use of AI, which is essential for the development of next-generation services, under the slogan of “AI for all services.”
In addition, based on the major premise of “user safety and security”, which is a bottleneck when handling AI and data, we will expand our services by utilizing our AI utilization know-how not only at Yahoo and LINE, but also at Softbank and Naver.
Invest 500 billion yen in 5 years and mobilize 5,000 people
ZHD has many services. In order to utilize AI in all of its services, we will invest a huge amount of 500 billion yen over five years. In addition, we plan to mobilize a large-scale AI human resource of 5,000 people.
Now that data-based projects and initiatives are recognized, software engineers and data scientists are needed everywhere.
Aiming to be the world’s leading AI tech company, ZHD possesses big data cultivated over its long history and develops services that can be used in the real world. We are looking for AI personnel who will be involved in improving frequently used services on a scale not found in other companies.
A solution box that responds to the voice of the people
He announced that he would set up a problem-solving box in order to use the power of information technology to take on the challenge of solving domestic problems. Z Holdings will set up a problem-solving box that incorporates the opinions of the people for a limited time in order to take on the challenge of “providing the best user experience to people living in Japan.”
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p class=”article_main_title”>Going forward, we will continue to take on the challenge of solving social issues and create value that Yahoo and LINE could not do alone.
