Yahoo Japan, PayPay merge malls against Amazon, Rakuten

Jul 06 (Nikkei) - Z Holdings will merge Yahoo Japan's online shopping platform with its subsidiary's e-commerce service to step up competition with rivals Rakuten and Amazon, Nikkei has learned.

Yahoo! Shopping will take over PayPay Mall services in October to facilitate the speedier trade and delivery of a predicted 400 million items.

PayPay Mall was launched in 2019 with sellers trading electronics, cosmetics, apparel and luxury brands among other items. The merger will broaden the Yahoo! Shopping range and increase its appeal.

Tie-ups between Yahoo! Shopping and messaging app Line, a subsidiary of Z Holdings, will also be strengthened. Yahoo! will provide official Line accounts to businesses that open stores on the platform, boosting product awareness and customer access.

Yahoo has 86 million users, PayPay 47 million and Line 92 million. The three services have hitherto been poorly connected.

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