‪Japan’s #1 social media giant LINE breaks into NFT market

TL;DR Breakdown

• Japan-based social media giant LINE will launch DOSI, its global NFT marketplace, in Q1 2022
• LINE has partnered with Dentsu Innovation Initiative and Zepeto Metaverse to issue over 1.3 million NFTs.

LINE has been expanding its integration of blockchain services since last year, and is now entering the NFT industry. LINE, a Japan-based messaging company, is pushing its way into the Non-Fungible Token era. New reports note that during its ongoing virtual conference, the LINE TAIWAN TECHPULSE 2022, the company announced that it would launch its NFT marketplace within the first quarter of this year. The platform which is named DOSI will roll out with three major services for a start.

DOSI rollout benefits 160 million users

During the ongoing LINE TAIWAN TECHPULSE 2022 conference hosted by LINE, the company has disclosed its plans for Q1 of this year. LINE has revealed that it will launch its NFT marketplace which is billed to be truly revolutionary. Named DOSI after the Korean word for ‘city’, the NFT marketplace will be a gateway to the Metaverse for LINE’s over 160 million worldwide users who are largely in Japan and South Korea.

The rollout of DOSI will see the platform offer three core services including DOSI Store, DOSI Wallet, and DOSI Support. The platform has been in development for a while now. LINE first revealed that it would be making a first into the industry in June last year, they announced the launch of LINE BITMAX WALLET, an NFT market beta service in the Japanese market. Last December, it revealed that it would extend the platform to the US and Korea and then globally through its new service LineNext.

NFTs are a kind of technology infrastructure that will transform the digital space and innovate the user experience in all areas, such as content, gaming, social and commerce, said Youngsu Ko, chief product officer of Line app products (and Line fintech company), who has been appointed CEO of LineNext told TechCrunch. The latest announcement of DOSI is the culmination of their previous efforts.

LINE expands blockchain services

Added to being a social media platform that offers instant messaging, video calls, and voice over internet (VoIP) services, LINE has been expanding its horizon to offer blockchain services. The Corporation currently has a LINE Blockchain Lab and has issued a crypto asset, LINK. It also operates the LINE Blockchain Developers Platform.

Additionally, LINE has partnered with Dentsu Innovation Initiative and Zepeto Metaverse to issue over 1.3million NFTs.

The allure for brands to embrace NFTs has been growing since 2021 and has Spiller over into 2022. Like LINE, many other brands have disclosed their various strategies for the booking Industry. This year, major brands including luxury car manufacturers Mercedes, and Automobile Lamborghini have revealed plans to launch their own collections.

NFT sales have also skyrocketed as seen in the amazing sales figures of OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace currently in the market. More marketplaces with different offerings have also been cropping up even as Web 3, the next iteration of the internet, is gaining traction. A recent announcement by RDMS Lab, a US-based AI platform, revealed that they are creating the world’s first NFT marketplace for science and technology intellectual property (IP).