LinQ

What LinQ does

LinQ Inc. (株式会社LinQ) is a Japanese internet service company founded on August 23, 2019 by Representative Director Harada Gosuke (原田豪介) and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. The company operates a single flagship consumer product, the whoo location-sharing application, available on Apple's App Store and Google Play, which allows users to share real-time whereabouts with friends and family. According to the company, approximately 80% of whoo's users are middle and high school students, positioning the app as a Japan-originated intimate social-connection platform and a successor to the discontinued Zenly. LinQ pursues global distribution of the app and frames its culture around fun, global thinking, and learning from self-made failures.

The business is monetized via a freemium mobile-app model, with specific pricing, subscription tiers, or advertising mechanics not publicly disclosed. Growth and brand reach have been driven primarily through earned media (recurring features on TV Tokyo, Fuji TV, NTV, TBS, ABC, Kansai TV, and in Forbes JAPAN, Nikkei Trendy, and DIME), celebrity and brand collaborations (K-pop group ENHYPEN, Starbucks Japan), and strategic partnerships (Hakuhodo for Gen Z intimacy research; Persol Career for Shibuya OOH). Capital structure: LinQ received a 2 billion yen strategic investment from MIXI in April 2023 and closed a Series A round in June 2026 totaling 1.1 billion yen, with new directors and auditors appointed as part of that financing; registered capital stands at 209 million yen including reserves.

The operating model is lean, with 1-10 employees and no disclosed revenue, subsidiaries, acquisitions, or AI/ML capabilities. Governance is consolidated under the founder-CEO with a CTO (Takeda) leading product quality; the company's stated intent is to scale whoo beyond Japan as a Japan-born global social app.

Name

LinQ

Legal name

株式会社LinQ

Website

https://linq.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

LinQ is a Japanese internet service company that operates whoo, a real-time location-sharing mobile app primarily used by Japanese middle and high school students as a successor to Zenly, distributed globally via App Store and Google Play under a freemium model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mobile Social Networking

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

akta.pro primary industry

Community/Group Chat Platforms (BPAMACAH)

Keywords

• Location sharing app
• Social networking app
• Mobile social platform
• Real-time location app
• Consumer social app

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Mobile Application Revenue: The company operates consumer-facing mobile applications with potential for in-app purchases, subscriptions, or advertising revenue. The app is available on App Store and Google Play.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

LinQ develops and operates "whoo," a mobile location-sharing application that enables users to share their real-time whereabouts with selected friends and family. The app is positioned as a successor to Zenly, targets primarily teenagers and young adults in Japan, and incorporates brand and celebrity collaboration content to drive engagement.

Product overview

LinQ operates as a communication company with a single flagship product called 'whoo' (フー), a location sharing application available on iOS and Android. The company creates products focused on enabling intimate connections between users. LinQ pursues global expansion, with their communication apps potentially serving users worldwide.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• whoo: Location sharing application for sharing position information with friends and family. The app allows users to share their location in real-time and has gained popularity among younger users in Japan.

Products and services

• whoo whoo is a mobile location-sharing application (位置情報共有アプリ) that enables users to share their real-time whereabouts with selected friends and family. It targets primarily teenagers and young adults in Japan and integrates celebrity and brand collaboration content (e.g., ENHYPEN, Starbucks Japan) to drive engagement.

Named customers2 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Starbucks JapanminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 19 November 2025Starbucks Japan featured in the whoo app, bringing brand collaboration to the platform's user base.
• ENHYPENminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 2 June 2025K-pop group ENHYPEN featured in the whoo app, leveraging celebrity partnerships to drive user acquisition among younger demographics.
• Persol CareerminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 10 May 2024Joint out-of-home advertising campaign at Shibuya Station with Persol Career, demonstrating partnership in marketing and brand visibility initiatives.
• HakuhodocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 April 2024LinQ and Hakuhodo conducted joint research on intimacy and closeness among Generation Z users, exploring how social apps foster deeper connections among younger demographics.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Zenly: Zenly was the leading real-time location-sharing app for friends before Snap shut it down in 2023. LinQ explicitly positions whoo as the Zenly successor in Japan, making it the most direct conceptual peer despite Zenly's discontinued status.
• Life360: Life360 is the largest publicly traded family location-sharing app, with tens of millions of paying users. While Life360 is family-focused rather than friend-focused, the core mechanic — continuous location sharing with a closed circle — is directly comparable to whoo.

Broad incumbents

• Snapchat: Snapchat owns Snap Map, a built-in location-sharing feature for its hundreds of millions of users, and previously owned Zenly. It is the incumbent platform whose native features directly compete with whoo's standalone proposition.
• Instagram: Instagram (Meta) offers location tagging, ephemeral Stories, and Close Friends for intimate sharing. While not a location-first app, it bundles many of whoo's social features into a default-installed platform used by the same teen demographic.
• Apple Find My: Apple's Find My is a built-in, frictionless location-sharing service embedded in the iOS ecosystem. As a default-installed incumbent, it sets the baseline against which any standalone location-sharing app like whoo must differentiate.

Emerging players

• NGL: NGL is an anonymous Q&A app that surged to the top of the App Store in 2022, riding the same teen-driven social-sharing wave as whoo. It targets the same Gen Z demographic and relies on similar viral, peer-driven discovery.
• Sarahah: Sarahah was an anonymous-feedback social app that achieved viral teen adoption globally. While functionally different, it represents the same pattern of teen-driven social apps that rode a single mechanic to mass adoption — the same pattern whoo is currently executing in Japan.
• BeReal: BeReal is a Gen Z social app whose core mechanic requires location-verified capture of daily moments. It targets the same teen/young-adult demographic as whoo and competes for the same attention around intimate, real-life social sharing.
• YOLO: YOLO is an anonymous Q&A app that distributed primarily through Snapchat, reaching massive teen audiences. It overlaps with whoo in targeting the same teen demographic for intimate, peer-to-peer social interactions.
• Gas: Gas (acquired by Discord) was a teen-focused social polling app that scaled rapidly through U.S. high schools. It targets the same middle/high school demographic as whoo and rode a similar word-of-mouth, school-by-school growth pattern.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/linqinc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors5 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about LinQ