Z Holdings

Z Holdings Corporation engages in media and commerce businesses in Japan. The company focuses on shopping and reuse businesses. It also offers membership, e-commerce, and payment-related services. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Z Holdings Corporation operates as a subsidiary of A Holdings Corporation.

Originally, the company was established as Yahoo Japan Corporation in January 1996, but on October 1, 2019, it changed to a holding company structure due to a company split and changed its corporate name.Due to the reorganization of the group centered on Yahoo Japan Corporation in 2019, the information and communication business division was absorbed and split into Yahoo Japan Corporation, and the financial enterprise management division Was split into Z Financial Co., Ltd. and transferred to a holding company, and is responsible for the management function of the entire group centered on subsidiaries from the time of the first corporation.

On November 2019 an announcement was made that a joint venture between Softbank Corp and Naver Corporation was agreed upon to merge the Z holdings corporation with LINE. Under which LINE, as well as various other assets of the Z Holdings Corporation, would be controlled by another holding company called A Holdings Corporation. The A Holdings Corporation ownership was then split 50% between Naver Corporation and Softbank Corp.In March 2021 Line Corporation officially merged with Yahoo! Japan, which had been operated by Z Holdings. Upon integrating the two businesses and creating further platforms, the merged company aims to compete with the U.S. tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple and the Chinese tech giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, as well as the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten. The merger also gives Z Holdings three additional Asian markets where Line is popular: Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.Founded in 2021, LINE Bank is a commercial bank headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, and owned by Z Holdings.