Chiru Labs, the Web3 startup responsible for the popular NFT project Azuki and its sub-project Beanz, has partnered with IPX, the company behind the “Line Friends” characters originally created as stickers for the Japanese messaging app “LINE.”
Announcing @_LINEFRIENDS (IPX) x @BEANZOfficial (Chiru Labs) pic.twitter.com/jpoWtLfFQZ
— Azuki (@Azuki) April 12, 2023
Through this partnership, Azuki’s Beanz NFT characters will interact with Brown and other popular figures from the South Korean franchise.
What does this interesting NFT collab include?
This partnership will focus on the Beanz NFTs and Line Friends characters. IPX, which has previously partnered with companies like Starbucks, Netflix, McDonald’s, and the K-Pop band BTS, has expanded from its Line Friends roots and is now an innovative intellectual property brand.
The partnership was celebrated at NFT NYC, where an animation featuring some of the NFT characters was displayed on a billboard above the Line Friends store in New York’s Times Square.
As part of the partnership, Line Friends equips are available to BEANZ holders for a limited time in the Collector’s Profile, and holders who dress their BEANZ with a LINE FRIENDS gear and share it on Twitter using the hashtag #BEANZKigu receive a unique badge on their Collector’s Profile.
The Circle of Fan life: From Digital to Physical Fans
Line Friends, which opened its first store in 2011, has since opened several stores offering specialized merchandise, amusement parks, a Netflix series titled “Brown and Friends,” and a partnership with the K-Pop band BTS, among other ventures.
Azuki, which has a total volume of over 473,083 ETH and a floor price of 15 ETH (~$30,000), is considered one of the top NFT projects today. The team is pioneering innovative ideas, and a recent Azuki #3628 sold for around $626,288.
Azuki founder Zagabond expressed excitement about the collaboration, stating that “IP is evolving, and we see the web3 community as an integral part of this next wave.” IPX has collaborated with companies including Samsung, Starbucks, Meta, and Vans in the past, and the Azuki x Line Friends collaboration is a significant step forward in connecting the already huge user base of LINE with global web3 media and characters.
Line Next, the U.S. division of Line, a big mobile messaging service that competes with What’s App, WeChat, and Kakao is also involved with blockchain gaming and has a Web3-based game platform called Game Dosi. Users can easily own and trade digital goods in Web3 games, while game developers can use Game Dosi to create their own blockchain-based games and build communities.
Line Corp. is a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Z Holdings, which is jointly owned by Softbank Group and Naver Corporation.They continue to expand on its existing projects in the NFT space.
