TOKYO/SEOUL/BANGKOK -- SoftBank-backed Yahoo Japan and messaging app Line have agreed to merge amid a sense of crisis that the Japanese companies could not individually compete in the global internet sector and could even lose their home markets unless they develop a worldwide presence.
The situation has become particularly critical at a time when global tech players such as Google are rapidly expanding their operations and hoovering up valuable data related to a wide range of user activity. The merger, engineered by the two groups' parent companies, is partly an attempt to protect the Japanese market from encroachment from outside.
