Author: Zen, PANews
In the Web3 space, rumors about collaborations between major companies always attract significant attention. Recently, the "strong partnership" between Soneium and LINE in Web3 business became a hot topic in the industry, sparking widespread discussion. However, with the official clarification from LINE's Web3 platform Dapp Portal, this seemingly sensational collaboration has been confirmed as a misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, LINE's Mini Dapp ecosystem is beginning to take shape, and Soneium is also actively laying out its blockchain gaming strategy. Whether the development paths of the two will truly intersect remains a focal point worth watching.
The "Strong Cooperation" Between Entertainment and Social Giants in Web3 is a Misunderstanding
"Recently, reports have stated that LY Corporation and another company announced a 'partnership' based on LINE's Web3 business. However, LY Corporation has confirmed to LINE NEXT that no such transaction or relationship exists." On March 14, LINE's platform Dapp Portal, which provides Web3 services, released a statement on social media clarifying that the much-discussed partnership between Sony's blockchain Soneium and LINE in the Web3 space does not actually exist. LY Corporation mentioned in the statement is LINE's parent company, and LINE NEXT is LINE's subsidiary focused on the Web3 field, which launched the Dapp Portal service.
Dapp Portal also mentioned that even in another company's announcement, the term "partnership" was never used. This is indeed the case; Soneium's official statement released on the X platform stated: "[LINE Mini-App] is about to land on Soneium," claiming to bring LINE mini-apps on-chain and connect with LINE's 200 million active users, while relevant developers would also benefit from Soneium's support.
However, in Soneium's official blog, it stated that "it is working with LINE to bring four successful mini-apps on-chain in the coming months," and the accompanying images were similar to those in most official partnership announcements, which inevitably led many media outlets and KOLs to mistakenly believe that a partnership had been established. Additionally, Sota Watanabe, founder and CEO of Astar Network, which is "deeply bound" to Soneium, also commented on the media reports on the X platform, stating: "This cooperation opens a new chapter for Web3, bringing us one step closer to mainstream adoption!"
1kx partner Peter (@pet3rpan_) expressed dissatisfaction with the event after Dapp Portal's clarification, stating while quoting Soneium's statement: "This statement is completely incorrect and severely distorts the facts; there is no official partnership between the two parties." He also questioned Sota Watanabe for an explanation regarding this.
Although Soneium has not yet reached an official partnership with LINE, its strategic intent to leverage LINE's platform with 200 million active users and expand its ecological influence through social gaming is evident. Especially against the backdrop of LINE's own impressive achievements in the Web3 business, the platform has become an important testing ground for Soneium's "going mainstream (GM with Soneium)" plan.
LINE Platform Effect Begins to Show: Mini Dapp Acquires 35 Million Users in First Month
In January of this year, LINE officially launched Mini Dapp, claiming that within just one month, the cumulative number of users exceeded 35 million, primarily from regions with high LINE penetration such as Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Korea. Mini Dapp is exclusively supported by the Kaia blockchain, allowing users to access it directly through LINE Messenger's Dapp Portal official account without needing to download a separate application.
According to Dapp Portal data, as of March 14, LINE has launched 52 Mini Dapps, with games like Elderglade, Frog Defense, Web3.0 PvZ, and Slime Miner surpassing two million players. When officially launching Mini Dapp, LINE NEXT also stated its goal is to launch over 1,000 projects by 2025.
With LINE's platform effect, the number of new wallets created within the Dapp Portal ecosystem exceeded 3 million within a month of launch, driving the overall wallet count on the Kaia network to grow by approximately 1168%. The monthly transaction volume of the Kaia ecosystem increased by 124%, reaching 27.38 million transactions. The number of on-chain active users also grew by 252%, reaching 8.1 million. LINE stated that the average spending per buyer is about $39, with approximately 32% of Dapp product payments made through credit cards and other non-virtual assets, indicating that some users unfamiliar with virtual assets are also actively entering the Web3 space.
It is worth mentioning that when HTML5 games became fashionable in social software, LINE launched the game service "LINE QUICK GAME," which also allowed users to play games within the LINE application without installing a specific application. This service was launched in September 2018, offering 24 easy-to-play games, and within a month, the user count exceeded 3 million. Two years later, due to poor market response, "LINE QUICK GAME" was discontinued, with LINE explaining that it needed to concentrate management resources on other areas of the gaming business.
With the development of blockchain technology and the demonstration effect of Telegram last year, LINE, now finding a new direction with Dapp Portal, has made a good start, and its subsequent development is worth looking forward to. This is also why Soneium is targeting LINE to expand its ecosystem.
Soneium's TVL Surpasses $80 Million, Plans to Launch 4 Mini-Games on LINE
In the past month, although the crypto market has been sluggish and the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has continued to shrink, several projects have performed well—besides LINE's Dapp Portal, Sony's Soneium is also rapidly developing.
According to DefiLlama data, as of March 15, the TVL of the Layer 2 scaling solution Soneium has reached $80 million, totaling $83.08 million. Its TVL growth rate in February was as high as 90%, and the growth rate in the past week was nearly 24%. Additionally, as an important indicator of ecological prosperity, Soneium's decentralized exchanges have also seen rapid growth, with the TVL of Sonex, Kyo Finance, and Velodrome achieving significant increases of 1504%, 429%, and 125% respectively in the past month.
Given Sony's influence in the traditional electronic entertainment industry, Soneium's achievements may not be surprising. However, to achieve the goal of "going mainstream (GM with Soneium)," a gaming-focused entertainment business may be the most effective approach. According to Soneium, the first batch of four mini-games integrated with Soneium, planned to launch on LINE, will officially debut in the coming months:
Sleepagotchi LITE: A simplified version of the Sleepagotchi Sleep Rewards app designed for iOS and Android, developed by the creators of the NFT game protocol Aavegotchi. This game offers a relaxed gaming experience without requiring users to track sleep data. Since its launch, Sleepagotchi LITE has garnered significant attention on the Telegram platform, attracting 1 million users within just one month and becoming one of the top-grossing applications.
Farm Frens: A farm-themed game developed by Amihan Entertainment, which has raised $10.5 million to date and previously launched the tower defense game Everseed, with team members who have worked on well-known games like League of Legends, Hearthstone, and MapleStory. Farm Frens first gained popularity on Telegram in 2024, becoming the top-ranked game on the platform.
Moonveil – Puffy Match: A mini-game developed by the Web3 gaming platform Moonveil.gg, which focuses on AI-driven infrastructure. The game features fast-paced gameplay designed to stimulate community interaction and encourage a reward-based participation mechanism.
Pocket Mob: A social strategy role-playing game developed by Sonzai Labs. The game offers highly interactive gameplay where players can compete for respect points in mafia-style battles and have the chance to win NFT rewards.
However, the aforementioned four games have not yet launched, and there are indeed questions about whether they can truly be realized.
In January of this year, Telegram announced that TON would be the only blockchain infrastructure for its Mini App ecosystem, ceasing support for all other blockchains. While LINE has not yet mentioned prohibiting blockchains other than Kaia from entering, it is not impossible for Kaia, as a Layer 1 blockchain jointly developed with Kakao, to establish a "platform barrier" to support its own ecological development in the future.
In fact, LINE and Kaia seem to have already been signaling this—on March 14, Dapp Portal released a major update, announcing the upcoming launch of the V2 version of Mini Dapp, with Kaia quoting this tweet and stating: "Isn't something big already happening? It is LINE's Dapp Portal, exclusively supported by Kaia." Subsequently, Dapp Portal retweeted Kaia's comment.
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