LINE Launches “Mini Dapp” to Venture into New Territories
In early 2025, LINE NEXT, a subsidiary of LINE dedicated to developing the Web3 ecosystem, officially announced the global launch of multiple Mini Dapps for users worldwide.
Dapp is short for “Decentralized Applications,” representing applications built on blockchain technology. The first batch of Mini Dapps released by LINE focuses on gaming, allowing users to access these games directly within the LINE app without any additional downloads.
More importantly, all LINE users can utilize the built-in cryptocurrency wallet to receive rewards issued by various applications (games) and trade crypto assets. One of the biggest challenges in the blockchain and Web3 space has always been “breaking out of the niche.” Individuals who are unfamiliar with these technologies often never engage with them. This move by LINE allows users in active markets such as Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia to seamlessly enter the Web3 world.
The driving force behind LINE Mini Dapp is the blockchain ecosystem “Kaia.” John Cho, Vice President of Marketing at the Kaia Foundation, stated that LINE has approximately 1 billion registered users globally, with around 200 million monthly active users. Besides the large user base, these users also exhibit high spending power, particularly in purchasing stickers and in-game items on the LINE platform, indicating significant business opportunities for gaming Web3 applications.
LINE NEXT, a subsidiary of LINE dedicated to developing the Web3 ecosystem, has officially announced the launch of multiple Mini Dapps and Dapp Portal services for users worldwide.
This is also the reason why the first wave of Mini Dapps focuses primarily on gaming applications. Of course, in addition to making games enjoyable, what stands out most is the reward mechanism built on blockchain technology.
If rewards are converted into cryptocurrencies or other digital assets, they can circulate across platforms on the same blockchain, offering greater freedom of use without the constraints of centralized management. For instance, users can freely trade and buy/sell tokens; even if the platform ceases operations, the cryptocurrencies will still circulate on the blockchain and won’t disappear.
Furthermore, John Cho emphasized: “The key to the popularization of Web3 lies in making the experience intuitive and smooth.” These Mini Dapps are directly embedded within the LINE application and integrate a built-in wallet, cryptocurrency exchange, and potential future features for fiat currency top-ups, allowing users to access Web3 applications without needing to understand complex technical details or download additional apps.
In the future, LINE’s Mini Dapps are planned to expand into social networking, e-commerce, trading, and other fields. According to official statements, the goal is to launch over 1,000 projects by 2025.
John Cho, Vice President of Marketing at the Kaia Foundation.
The Past and Present of the Kaia Ecosystem
Although LINE Mini Dapps are set to launch in 2025, Kaia is not a new player in the blockchain industry. Kaia is formed by the merger of two blockchains, Klaytn and Finschia, both developed by the South Korean messaging giant Kakao and Japan’s LINE, respectively, thus carrying the DNA of two major tech companies.
John Cho explained: “Klaytn and Finschia were both born in 2019 but had different positioning. Klaytn is a public chain, while Finschia was initially a private chain, primarily used for LINE’s Web3 products and services.”
A public chain represents an open and decentralized blockchain where anyone can participate and validate transactions, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin; whereas a private chain is controlled by specific organizations, allowing only authorized members to operate, typically applied within enterprises.
Finschia started as a private chain due to Japan’s conservative cryptocurrency regulations in 2019. At that time, LINE, as a publicly listed company in Japan, opted for a more discreet approach to operate its Web3 business, hence the chain was used solely to support LINE’s products and services.
By the end of 2023, LINE decided to transition the private chain into a public chain. However, John Cho noted that competition in the blockchain market intensified after 2023, especially with the rise of Layer 2 solutions, making it more challenging to operate a public chain independently. While LINE excels in Web3 product development, it lacks experience in maintaining a public chain.
Layer 2: A network built on top of the first layer blockchain (like Ethereum) that uses technologies to accelerate transaction speed and processing capacity, solving transactions and computations on another chain, thus reducing the burden on the mainnet of the first layer.
In contrast, Klaytn has years of experience operating a public chain. After careful consideration, the two parties, who previously had collaborative experiences, ultimately decided to propose merging to their respective foundations to form Kaia.
“After the merger, we can now confidently position ourselves as a leading blockchain ecosystem in Asia,” John Cho stated. Following the establishment of Kaia, the organization quickly focused on building the infrastructure for LINE Mini Dapps, with the Kaia Foundation acting as the primary non-profit organization responsible for constructing, operating, and maintaining the Kaia ecosystem.
#KaiaChain is making a splash at #TBW2024! Think Mini Dapps, consumer crypto wave, superchain GTM strategies and more. Just two days to go – fire away and RSVP below #KaiaAtTBW2024
11 December 2024 (Wednesday) 1️⃣ 13Desk: KOL GameFi Odyssey Babylon Taipei ⏰ 7:00 PM -…pic.twitter.com/RTesti3SWg— Kaia (prev. Klaytn & Finschia) (@KaiaChain) December 9, 2024
Is Web3 Essential for Creating a Super App?
After expanding beyond gaming, LINE Mini Dapp plans to venture into social networking, e-commerce, trading, and other fields to become an all-encompassing “super app.” When it comes to aggregating various lifestyle applications, China’s messaging app WeChat serves as a successful example.
However, WeChat achieved such success without needing to adopt Web3 mechanisms. Why is LINE investing significant effort and resources into this?
John Cho believes that from the perspectives of UX/UI and business models, WeChat’s Mini Apps (known as “mini programs” in China) are indeed quite successful, but LINE aims to provide unique values inherent to Web3.
“LINE needs to compete with platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to ensure user retention, therefore it must seek new ways to keep users engaged,” John Cho stated. As competition in the market increases, users will begin to seek more valuable experiences.
The key here is that blockchain can provide LINE users with “rewards” that possess monetary value through tokenization. This mechanism motivates users to engage with Mini Dapps in the long term.
However, John Cho candidly admits that for a long time, blockchain products have often been driven by technology rather than genuine “user needs,” leading many applications to fail to penetrate mainstream markets. Nevertheless, Kaia’s strategy aims to break this pattern: “Our goal is to facilitate a smooth transition for Web2 users to Web3 without requiring them to learn new technologies or change their usage habits. This is what sets Kaia apart from other blockchain ecosystems.”