Line's Answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home

The Japanese messaging tech giant Line had their yearly conference in Tokyo and it revealed the AI they've been working on, Clova. Clova is the company's answer to the Amazon Echo, Google Home (which is being released in Japan and other countries soon), and even Apple's Homepod.

The AI will do all your basic things the any smart speaker would do. You can play music, control smarthome products, check your calender, and more. But how would Line sell Clova products even if western companies are expanding their products? Multiple ways actually.

One of the main reasons why Line is so popular in Japan and in other countries is it's cute characters that are stickers in the messaging app and actual products the company makes. With the popularity of these characters the smart thing to do is to make one of their speakers based on their characters for the people of Japan to put in their homes. But not just Japan, Line is actually owned by the Korean tech giant Naver, so the speaker will also be sold in South Korea as well.

To compete with Apple's Homepod