The beloved characters from the highly successful South Korean franchise will soon be colliding with Azuki’s Beanz NFT characters.
Today, Chiru Labs, the Web3 company responsible for the non-fungible token (NFT) collections Azuki and BEANZ, and IPX, the parent company of the popular character collection LINE FRIENDS, announced a strategic partnership to create new opportunities for their brands and admirers.
Line Friends is a compilation of animal-inspired cartoon characters inspired by stickers from the popular Japanese messaging app Line and the South Korean internet giant Naver. Since its inception in 2011, Line Friends has spawned numerous themed stores, amusement parks, a “Brown and Friends” Netflix series, a collaboration with K-Pop group BTS, and more.
Through the partnership, Chiru Labs and IPX plan to work together on programming, merchandise, and events that will take place on their own properties. The first pair-up will be between characters from Line Friends and Beanz, which is an NFT collection based on Azuki.
In a significant move, the companies have decided to showcase their announcement through an animated short on the video billboard above the Line Friends store in Times Square, New York City.
The two companies will initially collaborate on BEANZ NFTs and LINE FRIENDS characters for content, merchandise, retail distribution, real-world activations, and immersive metaverse experiences.
The display will commence today, coinciding with the annual NFT NYC conference. IPX has formed partnerships with major brands including Samsung, Starbucks, Meta, and Vans in the past.
Azuki is NFT profile picture projects that have generated significant trading volume since their launch in early 2022, with $930 million and $263 million in trades respectively.
The parent company of Line Friends, IPX, has recently made a push into Web3 and has partnered with Chiru, the company behind Azuki, to combine their character-centric IP with Chiru’s Web3 properties for future content and products.
“We are excited to collaborate with IPX, who is a global leader in building innovative character IP brands beloved by millions of fans around the world,” Zagabond, the pseudonymous founder and CEO of Chiru Labs, said in a press release. “IP is evolving, and we see the web3 community as an integral part of this next wave. We can’t wait to bring the world of BEANZ together with LINE FRIENDS.”
“We plan to complement Chiru Labs’ IP with our multi-faceted character IP business strategy,” Logan Cho, the Head of the Metaverse Business at IPX, said in the press release. “We are eager to unveil an expanded IP business that encompasses Web3, offering collaborative opportunities for both NFT holders and character IP enthusiasts alike.”
