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Naver affiliate LY Corporation to ditch Line Works for Google Workspace

Published: 02 Oct. 2025, 16:48

Employees enter the Line Plus headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, on May 14, 2024. [NEWS1]

Naver’s footprint within affiliate LY Corporation, formed from the merger of Line and Yahoo Japan, is s teadily fading. LY Corporation will ditch Line Works, a business collaboration tool developed by parent company Naver, and adopt Google Workspace across its offices starting next year.

As Naver touts Line Works as a global success, voices in the industry warn that losing LY Corporation as a client could deal a setback to its business.

Line Plus, LY Corporation’s Korean subsidiary, decided to make the change to take advantage of Gemini, Google’s generative AI tool, an LY Corporation representative said Wednesday.

“We plan to improve work efficiency by using Google Workspace, which conveniently integrates Gemini,” the source said.

The decision comes as a company-wide shift. Unlike Kakao, where some departments have chosen to use external tools such as Slack instead of Kakao Work, LY Corporation ordered all its domestic and overseas offices, including branches in Taiwan and Thailand, to replace Line Works with Google Workspace.

Line Works, operated in Korea under Naver Cloud, provides services such as messaging, email, calendars, scheduling and video conferencing. Competitors include Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Salesforce’s Slack and Kakao Work. Naver introduced the Line Works service in Japan in 2016 through its subsidiary Works Mobile Japan, now Line Works Corporation.

Naver Cloud said Line Works accounted for more than 40 percent of Japan’s paid business messaging market last year, ranking first for the seventh consecutive year since 2017. The service gained an edge by leveraging the popularity of Line, Japan’s dominant messaging platform.

But industry insiders say LY Corporation’s withdrawal as a client could hurt Naver Cloud’s business-to-business operations, affecting plans to expand into the global market that were announced in July at a Naver event marking the 10th anniversary of Line Works in Japan.

“Line Works’ success in Japan came not only from Naver’s business strategy but also from the influence of the Line brand and service,” an information technology industry source said. “If LY Corporation chooses Google products instead of Line Works overseas, it could be interpreted as Google being more effective for productivity.”

A Line Plus office [LINE]

Line Plus said the switch follows a multivendor strategy for adopting generative AI and that it also uses ChatGPT Enterprise.

“We introduced Google Workspace to smoothly integrate AI functions going forward,” a company spokesperson said.

The change also coincides with LY Corporation’s plan to separate its internal networks from Naver’s. In a filing last July, LY Corporation said it would migrate major internal systems, including its personnel system, by March 2026.

Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications previously urged LY Corporation to reassess its capital relationship with Naver after customer data was leaked from systems managed by Naver Cloud.

Line Plus, however, emphasized that the tool change was not in response to the ministry’s guidance.

“This decision is aimed at actively utilizing generative AI,” a Line Plus spokesperson said.

Naver, for its part, said it was aware of LY Corporation’s decision and does not expect a major business impact.

“We cannot comment on contract details, but even if LY Corporation does not use Line Works, the impact on Naver Cloud’s business is limited,” Naver Cloud said. “LY Corporation already uses Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace and Slack, and the choice of collaboration tools falls within each company’s own decision-making.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY YU SUNG-KUK [[email protected]]