Line announces mobile payments service that lets you shop within the app

Messaging app Line has announced the global launch of its payment system, called Line Pay, which will allow users to transfer money and purchase items directly from the app. Line claims that the payment service will help users make secure and convenient payments straight from their smartphones, irrespective of the operating systems they run on. The announcement is somewhat premature, as the payment service only supports payments on the Line store as of now. In the future, however, you can expect the app to allow users to buy from affiliated services and shops, which include music, ecommerce websites and physical stores.  The company said it intends to expand the possibilities of the payment service to allow for easier in-app payments. You can also expect it to introduce a variety of promotions, offline purchasing of goods and money transfers between other Line users. Line users will need to register their credit cards before using the service. Line Pay supports JCB, Master Card, and Visa cards and there is no limit to the number of credit cards that can be registered per user. Line claims that it does not save any private data, except for the unique identification code of your credit card. The app has released globally, with the only exceptions being China and South Korea. As of now, countries outside of Japan can only use the credit card-integrated features of the payment service. Mobile payments through social apps is an interesting feature and we’ve already seen some early adopters including Snapchat . Facebook and Twitter are also working on in-app payment services on their respective platforms.