Naver said, Friday, the Japanese government’s apparent attempt to exclude the Korean IT firm from joint management of the Line mobile messenger app with SoftBank is very unusual.During a conference call on first-quarter earnings, Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon pointed out that Japan’s administrative guidance in March, which asked LY Corp., the messenger app’s Tokyo-headquartered operator, to reconsider its financial reliance on Naver, is unprecedented. The administrative guidance came after a massive leak of Line users’ personal information last November via Naver’s cloud server.“It is very unusual for an administrative guidance to ask for readjustments to a shareholding structure,” Choi said. “Rather than determining whether to follow the guidance or not, we see the matter as a decision which needs to be made according to our mid-to-long-term business strategy, and we are still pondering the matter.”
This is the first time the Naver CEO made an official comment on this issue. She also confirmed that Naver is in talks with the Korean government regarding the matter.Last month, Korea’s ICT and foreign ministries and the presidential office told reporters that the government is cooperating with Naver to cope with Japan’s guidance.“We would like to appreciate the government supporting us,” Choi said.In response to a question about the potential impact of the guidance on Naver’s business, the CEO said there will be changes in its revenue from the infrastructure business, as the networks of Naver and Line will be separated.“We will clarify our stance, once we finalize our plan,” 스포츠토토존 she said.