Japanese multimedia app LINE’s recent entry into the unreal intelligence (AI) market is prone to dominate the virtual assistant market in Asia as a result of its primary focus and influence within the region.
To compete with current Western artificial intelligence (AI) devices equivalent to Apple’s Siri, Google’s Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa, LINE developed its own AI system called Clova over the course of a yr and got down to bring Asia into the AI era, country by country.
Unveiled on the Barcelona Mobile World Congress in February 2017, Clova’s technology is featured in LINE’s recent smart home speakers, the WAVE and the smaller CHAMP, as the corporate’s response to the increasing technological advances of the time.
Clova’s response mechanisms are tailored to process language more naturally, meaning its responses are geared toward being more “human.” The importance of the human-like factor is underscored by how LINE’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Euivin Park refers to Clova.
“It’s not only machine learning. [Clova] is meant to be a virtual assistant that’s near our every day lives. Machine learning is only a component of the virtual assistant,” she explained on the recent LINE Developer’s Day summit in Tokyo, as reported by Jakarta Post.
Starting in September, Clova technology can be available exclusively within the LINE WAVE and CHAMP smart speakers, which is able to go on sale outside of the autumn pre-sale, but only in Japan and South Korea.
Park explained that LINE has long-term plans to expand Clova technology and its WAVE and CHAMP speakers to its largest markets, equivalent to Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand, but those plans is not going to materialize for now.
Meanwhile, LINE also plans to integrate Clova with smartphones, in addition to cars, toys, home appliances and retail services.
The launch of LINE’s Clova technology comes as its Western peers – Google and Amazon – have begun developing their very own AI platforms of their smart speakers, Google Home and Amazon Alexa.
Park comments that while LINE’s entry into the AI market will be considered relatively late, the corporate’s advantage lies within the indisputable fact that it’s specializing in its immediate markets for now. If the corporate plans to expand its services, they may likely first be rolled out to its largest Asian markets.
“LINE is just five years old, but we now have grown in a short time in that point. We can’t be fully in comparison with [Google or Amazon]because they […] “We have decades of experience,” Park said, as quoted by Jakarta Post.
He added: “We only began the Clova project last yr, but we now have achieved [initial] goal in that point. I do not think another company can match us in that speed.”
According to FortuneLast yr, Line surged 36% in its U.S. debut, valuing the storied tech startup at $9.34 billion in the biggest tech IPO of the yr. Shares of the Tokyo-based company hit a peak of $44.49 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange
