Naver’s Japanese affiliate Line will end sales of smart devices equipped with the AI voice recognition assistant service “CLOVA” in Japan. It also announced the termination of Clova Assistant’s service.



According to industries on the 28th, Line announced that it will end sales of smart devices equipped with Line Clova on the 31st. Devices that end their sales include Clova Wave, Friends Dog, Friends, Friends Mini, and Desk.



In addition, the service of “Clova Assistant,” a voice recognition assistant service installed on smart speakers, will end on March 30, 2023. Customers who used the Clova Assistant can use the device as a general Bluetooth speaker after the service is terminated. However, pairing must be done before the service is terminated.



Line added that it will proceed with refund measures for devices with less than a year of purchase that still have a warranty period. Line will make further announcements about the related contents in the future.



Line announced the end of sales of Clova devices because it judged that there was a limit to the voice recognition service itself. In fact, it is known that there were many difficulties in expanding the market because the function only works with voice. In such a situation, Google and Amazon entered the market, and the pie did not grow, but competition intensified, and it is analyzed that they boldly chose to terminate the service.



LINE plans to further strengthen its AI business for enterprises based on data obtained from Clova’s operational experience in the future