On November 29, LY Corporation launched a new monthly membership program, LYP Premium. As the name suggests (the letters of LYP each stands for LINE, Yahoo! JAPAN and PayPay), the new program takes full advantage of synergy generated by the LY Corporation Group. The membership offers more convenient and valuable services to users while introducing new benefits for LINE in addition to exisiting perks of Yahoo! JAPAN Premium.
We sat down with Shogo Masuda, the person responsible for the project to talk about what user experience LYP Premium has to offer, his aspirations, as well as future visions of the program.

Shogo Masuda

As a new graduate, Shogo Masuda joined a securities company where he worked in sales and was eventually posted overseas. He then moved on to work for a consulting firm to take on roles to handle M&A transactions, corporate revitalization, and post-merger integration (PMI) for IT-related businesses. With a wish to bring dynamic growth to services and provide them to users while leveraging his own experience, he joined the former Yahoo Japan Corporation and led the launch of campaigns such as the Cho PayPay Matsuri (Super PayPay Festival). He currently oversees the LYP Premium project.

What is LYP Premium, an Upgraded Version of Yahoo! JAPAN Premium?

――Tell us about LYP Premium.

LYP Premium was launched to enhance convenience for users of services such as LINE, Yahoo! JAPAN and PayPay provided by the LY Corporation Group. The membership offers new benefits on the LINE app on top of the perks already available through Yahoo! JAPAN Premium.

The total number of LINE, Yahoo! JAPAN and PayPay users has grown to encompass almost the entire population of Japan. More specifically, monthly active users of LINE, PayPay and Yahoo! JAPAN are, respectively, about 96 million (as of the end of September 2023), over 60 million (as of October 2023), and over 54 million (as of the end of June 2023). It is no exaggeration to say that almost everyone living in this country are using these services.

However, the challenge was that the services seemed disjointed to users, and it was not easy for them to seamlessly navigate from one service to another. For example, it was unlikely for them to naturally think, "Since I use the LINE app, let me also use Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping and Yahoo! JAPAN Search," or "Let's try using Yahoo! JAPAN services as I already have a PayPay account."
Our aim was to bring all these services together and present them to users as one comprehensive group of services, facilitating a more seamless and convenient experience.

――How did you decide what benefits to offer for LYP Premium?

Most of the Yahoo! JAPAN Premium benefits remain available except for the ones used less frequently. For example, benefits for Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping and Yahoo! JAPAN Travel, and PayPay Coupons continue to be offered.

To select new benefits to offer, we started by understanding what users really wanted. For the initial release in November, we included benefits that have particularly large number of users within the LINE app services, and those deemed essential based on our user survey results.

First, LYP Premium users get acess to LINE Sticker Premium, which allows unlimited use of over 12 million eligible LINE stickers without additional fee. Also, they can hold onto precious memories while saving videos and saving/sharing original-quality photos in LINE Albums.
These are just some of our current offerings in LYP Premium. We are looking to introduce more benefits in the future to address users' pain points in reference to the results of user surveys.

Enriching User Experience through LYP Premium

――What are you particularly focused on to ensure a widespread use among many users?

We aim to leverage LYP Premium to enhance user experience for services used on a daily basis. What we are commited to in particular, is providing users options for convenient experience in the simplest and easiest-to-understand manner right when they feel the need for it.

More specifically, when they open their LINE album and think they want to upload videos and original-quality photos, they will see a message saying that it is possible with the LYP Premium membership. When they are looking for a certain product on Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping, we dislay a message to let them know about a members-only 1,000 yen discount or an increase in PayPay Points rewards.
In this way, we want to fulfill the needs of users through providing them access to relevant information exactly when they need it.

Finding Joy in Challenges Where Synergy Comes to Life--A Guiding Value as a Leader

――LYP Premium offers benefits of both LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN platforms. As the project was carried out involving employees from both services, I'm assuming there may have been some challenges, but what do you value as a leader in such circumstances?

First, I value the spirit of taking the courage to try something new. We are now about to venture into an uncharted territory, standing at the forefront, where the synergies are brought to life. I told my team to enjoy their continuous challenges at the frontline of the business.

Rather than improving or adjusting things that someone else has already created, we set our minds to focusing on better user experience while trying out new systems or promotion methods regardless of past experiences or precedents. For example, LYP Premium adopted various initiatives such as providing benefits to users based on a new system to connect LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN accounts as well as making in-app purchases available.

Moreover, it was an unprecedented major challenge for us to create a brand new service after the merger of the two companies with different corporate culture, integrating the varying perspectives and approaches to each phase of the project from development, planning to design.

――Speaking of different corporate culture, was there anything in particular that made a lasting impression on you over the course of the project?

In the former Yahoo Japan Corporation, roles and responsibilities as well as boundary of tasks were clear-cut in various cross-departmental projects. Although it was efficient, sometimes it made us reluctant to give an opinion as it seemed as though each department was independent, minding their own services.

However, projects such as LYP Premium in which we worked with the former LINE members, we were first blown away by how they were actively discussing and exchanging ideas on improvement/concerns for each other's services. What I still remember is the Messenger team that discussed the new features for LYP Premium and provided us with their feedback for potential improvement even before we asked them to do so.
We also had a wide-ranging discussions with the Sticker team on the New Year promotion. Ultimately, it was a great opportunity for us to collaborate with them while getting a lot of insights on the campaign details and the design of the promotion page.

These are just some examples of how we needed to make sure that we were on the same page, as our mindset and practices were different. It's no exaggeration to say that we had to overcome both critical and difficult challenges more than 100 times up until the release date.
It may be obvious, but what is important is to fully understand each other's underlying beliefs and approaches to services and users. My team members and I kept in mind that it is natural to be different and a combination of differences gives rise to new possibilities.

――On the contrary, what were the things you found in common?

LINE and Yahoo Japan had different corporate cultures, but we had the common underlying value of putting users first.
At the end of the day, we often found ourselves heading in the same direction after going through discussions on how to develop features that were convenient for users or whether a certain feature is up to the standards of users.
The passion to create great services for users is one of the driving forces in our joint projects.

Although we had some setbacks along the way towards the release, generating new value through a combination of diverse perspectives is the significance of the corporate merger and what LYP Premium will continue to strive for.

Future Vision to Transition from "More" to "Only"

――What are the future goals for LYP Premium?

We believe the benefits provided this time will be appreciated among many users who are already using features such as LINE stickers and sharing of photos/videos on the LINE app. On the other hand, quite a lot of users perceive the LINE app as a communication infrastructure such as emails or telephones, and use it as a simple means of communication.
To satisfy their needs, we will consider adding benefits such as a backup feature wanted by many users when upgrading their phones and support for multiple accounts.

The recent release of LYP Premium focused on providing more features, such as additional benefits and convenience for the existing services. Going forward, our focus will shift to aiming for the one-and-only service. In other words, we believe it is essential to provide benefits that are unique and exclusive to LYP Premium membership.

For example, some subscription services are offering membership-only special video content and its uniqueness is making their services more attractive. In LYP Premium, we will actively carry out initiatives to provide LYP Premium-only benefits to users.

In 2024, we are determined to introduce appealing perks in which we have full confidence to satisfy the needs of any user. Please stay tuned for more updates!

Related Links

*Please note that linkage of LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN accounts is necessary in order to access all of the benefits for LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN. Further, linkage of Yahoo! JAPAN and PayPay accounts is also necessary in order to access PayPay Points, PayPay Coupons, and other benefits associated with PayPay. LYP Premium membership benefits are subject to change and/or discontinuation without prior notice. Please refer to the LYP Premium website for the details of benefits currently provided to members.
*Users may join LYP Premium without first linking their LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN accounts, in which case they will have access to some, but not all, benefits of membership. Further, users may unlink previously linked accounts at anytime.

Interview date: October 24, 2023
Note: The information covered in this article is current as of the interview date.