LY Communications

LINE is looking for ways to make communication easier before and after payment, which is key to a cashless society.

LINE Corporation (Head Office Location: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. Representative Director/President: Takeshi Idezawa), LINE subsidiary that focuses on mobile payment services via LINE's messaging app, LINE Pay Corporation (Head Office Location: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo. Representative Director/CEO: Youngsu Ko. Henceforth referred to as "LINE Pay"), and Fukuoka-based LINE subsidiary, LINE Fukuoka Corporation (Head Office Location: Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. Representative Director/President: Noritaka Ochiai), will be running trials from July 1 for bulky trash requests payable with LINE Pay in Chuo-ku, Fukuoka City.

The trial uses a new feature added to the popular "福岡市粗大ごみ受付" (Fukuoka City bulky trash requests) official LINE account (LINE ID: ＠fukuokacity_sdg) that was started in September 2018. The new feature allows payment of bulky trash requests using LINE Pay. This is a first for Japan, removing the need to go to a convenience store or other shop to pay, and making the whole process, from application to payment all possible within the LINE app. Initial trials are in Chuo-ku only, but if they prove successful, will be rolled out to all other areas of Fukuoka City.

From Jul. 1, 2019 to Mar. 31, 2020 ※Possible change

• 1. Add the official LINE account "福岡市粗大ごみ受付" (Fukuoka City bulky trash requests) (LINE ID: ＠fukuokacity_sdg)
• 2. Enter what you want collected and the number of pieces on the "粗大ごみ収集の申し込み" (Bulky trash pick up application)
• 3. Enter the pick up address and pick up date, and choose where the trash will be taken
• 4. Use LINE Pay to pay the processing fee
• 5. Write the pick up number, pick up date and fee on a piece of paper and affix it to your bulky trash. Take your bulky trash to the appointed pick up point by 8:30am on the pick up date and you're done!
• - Registration with the mobile money transfer/payment service LINE Pay and sufficient money in the LINE Pay account are required.

As the population of Fukuoka City and the number of people coming and leaving increase every year, so does the amount of bulky trash requests. An official LINE account was set up in order to make the process easier, and trials began in September 2018. The feature incorporates a chat bot that allows users to easily complete the whole process on their mobile device, the first tie-up of its kind with a local government in Japan.

The trial finished at the end of April 2019, with the following results.
・ User satisfaction was 98% (In a survey conducted for this trial, users said, "The process was simple and fast," "I was unable to call for trash pick up during office hours, but with LINE, I was able to ask for trash pick ups any time," etc.)
・ 15% of trash pick up requests were via LINE
・ High rate of users kept using the trash request LINE account after adding it
The program was officially instated in May 2019, and by June 2019 the account had over 33,000 users registered.
However, many trial users said, "It would be more convenient if we could also pay for pick up fees using LINE," and so a new trial using this feature was started.

These cashless transaction trials are another way the LINE Group has been closely involved with Fukuoka City's move towards cashless transactions. We believe that making it easier to communicate before and after paying for something is the way to truly change the way people live in Fukuoka City for the better. In this new trial, we are hoping to test the effectiveness of a comprehensive solution that combines cashless payments and communication solutions.

• 1. Additions to the bulky trash item list and improvements to the search feature
• - The most common reason users stopped using the service was their inability to find the right category for their trash. More categories were added and the search was improved by making it so searching for similar words will pull up the relevant category in the list (words like "humidifier" and "vaporizer").
• 2. Added a request cancelation feature (Cancelations were previously only possible by phone)
• 3. Notification that the process is complete now occurs within the chat room (Completion notifications previously came by E-mail)

The LINE Group isn't stopping here. We will continue to exploit our cutting-edge technologies in areas such as AI and FinTech in order to make a prosperous and convenient Smart City a reality.