Line Corp. said Thursday it plans to focus more on artificial intelligence, saying AI-related services will be the next big thing after the smartphone boom.
"Because of the smartphone trend, Line was born and we have grown this far. But looking at five or 10 years from now, what comes after the smartphone era? It's the era of AI," said Jun Masuda, Line's chief strategy and marketing officer, at a news conference in Tokyo, where the company disclosed its strategy going forward.
The Tokyo-based messaging-app giant said the new core service it is developing will be called Clova, an internet-based AI system or "virtual assistant."