Line Taxi

Messenger Japan Line has started a taxi delivery in Tokyo.

Line, the news biggest in Japan, is going head-to-head, starting a taxi ride in Tokyo this weekend and outlining road maps for country-wide growth. New Line Taxi services are available through the company's premier corporate application, with Nihon Kotsu, one of Japan's biggest taxi operators, providing chauffeurs and taxis.

Kotsu, which has more than 3,000 taxis in Tokyo and around 23,000 cars in the state, will deliver the amusement park attractions, but Line will make the final settlement with its new Line Pay transaction processing system. Uber, which had a restricted start in Tokyo in November 2013 before being upgraded to a full range of services last March, will be the app's principal rival in Japan.

The Hailo UK taxi application is also available in Japan in the towns of Osaka and Tokyo. TechInAsia has found that this restricted business makes Japan a relatively quiet taxi application business, especially in comparison to the remainder of Asia, where there are up to 10 applications fighting each other in a given state.

As TechInAsia added, it was Line Line that provided "better cover and faster waiting times" for Tokyo city center automobiles in its own line taxi versus line taxi comparisons. Line's introduction of its taxi services highlights the company's increasing ambitions. Line, like competitors WhatsApp, KakaoTalk and Kik, has expanded the free phone message booming to ten million people ( the business had 170 million registered in October 2014).

The four-year Line, however, has quickly evolved beyond just Messaging and now offers a range of mobility features that include gaming, anti-virus protection, drafting features, a cameras application and Line Pay. The arrangement of these applications around a single message server has so far proven to be a clever approach for Line - but can a little friend tagging help the giant conquer?