2018.04.05 Corporate
TOKYO – April 5, 2018 – LINE Corporation ("LINE") and en-japan inc. ("en-japan") announce that they have entered into a Joint Venture Agreement and will be jointly funding the establishment of a new company, "LENSA, Ltd." "LINE Career," a new service released as a joint venture business engaged in posting and sending job listings, will be provided by this new company.
Between en-japan's desire to accelerate the rate at which it acquires job seekers, and LINE's desire to expand its services to provide new value to its users, the intentions of the two companies aligned, leading to the establishment of a joint venture company.
The new company will leverage the diverse job listing information of en-japan's job search websites ([en] Career Change Info, [en] Career Change Consultant, and AMBI) together with LINE's abundant user base (boasting over 73 million monthly active users in Japan) to plan and develop a never-before-seen service that matches companies advertising job openings with job seekers.
The service will tentatively start this summer. Further announcements will be made as matters such as the details of the new company and the service are determined.
By providing a new job listing platform through this new company that takes advantage of each company's strengths, LINE and en-japan will create new touchpoints between companies advertising job openings and job seekers, as well as assist both job seekers in making successful career changes and companies in making successful hires.
Comment from Takatsugu Suzuki (President of en-japan inc.):
en-japan, a recruiting site dating back to the early days of the internet, has always been operated under the philosophy of "We foster serendipitous connections between People and Organizations." Whether they're searching for their first job or a change in career, we assist our over 11 million users by focusing on providing honest and detailed job listings in order to prevent any post-hire mismatches. We are overjoyed at the opportunity this joint venture with LINE gives us to provide even more people with quality and reliable job listings. By leveraging en-japan's and LINE's respective know-how and resources, we will continue to contribute to bringing career satisfaction to as many people as possible, all the while improving companies' business results.
Comment from Takeshi Idezawa (Representative Director, President, Chief Executive Officer of LINE Corporation):
LINE is advancing its strategy to use the LINE messaging app as a "Smart Portal," through which users can seamlessly connect with people, information, services, companies, and brands they need, online or offline, from anywhere and at anytime, 24/7, without leaving the app. As a part of this strategy, we have been actively undertaking and launching various initiatives and services, including payments, shopping, part-time job information, news, manga, games, and more. I'm very excited that establishing this joint venture with en-japan will allow us to launch a service that plays a role in a very important event in people's lives – career change. I believe that this, in turn, will contribute the growth of LINE's Smart Portal. We, together with en-japan, will leverage the strengths of the LINE platform as we put all of our efforts into creating an appealing job-hunting service that provides users with new and never-before-seen value.
Joint Venture Company Overview
(1) Trade name：LENSA, Ltd.
(2) Representatives：Teruyuki Terada, Representative Director and President(Executive Officer of en-japan inc.)
Jun Masuda, Representative Director and Chairman(CSMO of LINE Corporation)
(3) Location：Shinjuku I-land Tower 35F, 6-5-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
(4) Established：April 16, 2018 (tentative)
(5) Primary business：Posting and sending of job listings and various other information provision services, provided by LINE Career
(6) Capital ：JPY 200 million (including JPY 100 million in capital reserves)
(7) Fiscal year closing date：March 31
(9) Investment ratio：en-japan inc.: 51%／LINE Corporation: 49%
en-japan inc. Overview
(1) Trade name：en-japan inc.
(2) Representatives：Michikatsu Ochi, Chairman
Takatsugu Suzuki, President
(3) Location：Shinjuku I-land Tower 35F, 6-5-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
(4) Business：Online job posting/job seeking information service, staffing, employee training, HR consulting, aptitude tests, and other services related to personnel hiring and post-hiring
(5) Capital：JPY 1.194 billion (as of December 31, 2017)
(6) Fiscal year closing date：March 31
(7) Principal shareholders and holding ratio：Michikatsu Ochi, 10.74%／en Kikaku, Inc., 10.66%
LINE Corporation Overview
(1) Trade name：LINE Corporation
(2) Representative：Takeshi Idezawa, Representative Director, President, and Chief Executive Officer
(3) Location：JR Shinjuku Miraina Tower 23F, 4-1-6 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
(4) Business：Provision and operation of the LINE messaging app and content and services made available on the LINE platform, in addition to other web service businesses and AI businesses
(5) Capital：JPY 92.369 billion (as of December 31, 2017)
(6) Fiscal year closing date：December 31