With the new update of LINE messaging app (version 4.8.0), LINE Pay has now been released globally (except China & South Korea), including Malaysia.
With the new update of LINE messaging app (version 4.8.0), LINE Pay has now been released globally (except China & South Korea), including Malaysia.
During this initial release, LINE Pay will only support payments on LINE Store, where LINE stickers, games, themes are available.
In future updates, LINE Pay will be able to support payments on digital content, e-commerce sites, and brick & mortar stores, such as your favourite cafe or boutique.
Besides that, you can look forward to transferring money within your friends who are on LINE.
How to use LINE Pay?
This is certainly an interesting development on mobile commerce space, as payment on smartphone is still a pain in the ass. Entering credit card details on every transaction, online banking (interface not mobile optimized, hassle of TAC verification) is still not ideal. PayPal on another hand provides smooth experience on mobile payment but merchant fees is on the high side plus how many have PayPal account here?
Read also: All our previous articles on PayPal
On LINE Pay, users can add their credit card information (MasterCard, Visa, AMEX, JCB) and make payment effortless on e-commerce websites, regardless of their carrier or OS.
The payment experience on mobile can be as good as PayPal potentially, more importantly LINE is able to leverage on their impressive user base. You can imagine that LINE activating a big chunk of its user base in Malaysia (more than 10 million) to use LINE Pay, something that PayPal is shying of.
Eng Sheng Guan, CEO of MOLPay agrees that LINE Pay being an in-apps payment could work well for micro-payment on mobile, "I think it is a perfect fit for businesses like snap and sell, movie tickets, online games among others. Merchants will definitely explore opening a store in LINE (if available) to tap into LINE's huge user base", said Eng.
In terms of security, LINE has issued a statement as below:
In order to use LINE Pay, a separate and exclusive password is required that differs from the password used for LINE. Also, when using payment and other money-transferring features, logging into LINE Pay on a new device, or if the user has changed their device for some other reason, the user must enter their LINE Pay-exclusive password, preventing the LINE Pay features from being used even if a LINE account is logged in to by a third party. In order to maximize its strengths as a mobile service, users will be required to verify their LINE account on their smartphones each time even when making payments on the PC site, making it nearly impossible for an unauthorized third party to fraudulently use the service. Apple Touch ID verification is also used (iPhones only) to view the user's password and also for smartphone verification when using the PC site. LINE also utilizes a monitoring system to detect and report accounts that are suspected of illicit activity and will work to ensure a safe and secure payment service for its users. LINE Pay will comply with the standards of local financial institutions and the LINE Pay Corporation will manage its service to ensure the financial security of all of its users.
Nothing much on merchant's side is being announced by LINE this time around, as LINE Store is the only place you can use LINE Pay for now.
In terms of merchant fees and integration, let's wait for the next announcement during when LINE Pay is available to e-commerce sites. We are also keen to find out how it will work on the brick & mortar stores.
In summary, LINE Pay is a force to be reckon, purely on its strength of user base, payment on the go (on smartphone) and micro-payment.
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