LINE Yahoo Releases Transparency Report on Advertising Service Quality (2025 Edition)

LINE Yahoo Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "LINE Yahoo") today released the "Transparency Report on Advertising Service Quality (2025 Edition)", summarizing its initiatives and review outcomes aimed at improving advertising service quality.

This report is published to inform advertisers, advertising agencies, partner companies, and users of LINE Yahoo's advertising services about efforts and review results related to ad quality improvement, with the goal of creating a trustworthy environment where services and advertisements can be used with confidence.

The 2025 edition features reorganized content and revised structure to address information overload. The presentation has been streamlined to make key information on quality improvement initiatives and review outcomes more accessible. Additionally, visual clarity of rejection reasons has been enhanced, and a dedicated section detailing collaboration with government agencies and public institutions has been newly introduced.

Furthermore, in April 2026, "Yahoo! Ads" and "LINE Ads" will be integrated into a new platform, "LINE Yahoo Ads". As part of this integration, advertising account review standards, ad placement criteria, and judgment guidelines are being unified, consolidating previously separate platform-specific review systems. However, as this report covers performance data from the 2025 fiscal year—prior to platform integration—results for "Yahoo! Ads" and "LINE Ads" are presented separately by service.

※ For details on the LINE Yahoo Ads platform integration: https://www.lycbiz.com/jp/news/20260218/

Transparency Report on Advertising Service Quality

LINE Yahoo conducts 24/7 advertising review and patrol operations using both AI-powered systems and human oversight to ensure users can safely use its services and advertisers can maximize campaign effectiveness.

In the 2025 fiscal year, Yahoo! Ads rejected approximately 200 million ad creatives (※1). The most common reason was "superlative claims and No.1 representations", primarily driven by an increase in ads using expressions such as "world's first", "industry's best", and "No.1 sales record"—especially on e-commerce sites.

LINE Ads rejected 521,660 ad creatives in the 2025 fiscal year (※2). The top reason, accounting for about half of all rejections, was "ads potentially violating relevant laws and regulations", with intensified enforcement against inappropriate expressions in medical advertising.

※ The significant year-on-year decrease in rejected ads is attributed to strengthened review systems, which have reduced the submission of fraudulent accounts and ads.

Brand Safety and Ad Fraud Countermeasures

Both Yahoo! Ads and LINE Ads implement system-based monitoring and human review of ad placements and traffic. Efforts in "brand safety" prevent ads from appearing on inappropriate content, while "ad fraud countermeasures" detect and block invalid bot-driven clicks and traffic, creating a secure environment for advertisers.

In the 2025 fiscal year, Yahoo! Ads' display advertising prevented approximately ¥131 billion in invalid clicks, resulting in non-billing of equivalent advertising costs. For search advertising, approximately ¥29 billion was similarly excluded from billing. LINE Ads Network delivered ads to over 13,000 apps (※3), conducting placement reviews and monitoring before and after ad delivery. In 2025, countermeasures against invalid clicks led to approximately ¥4 billion in non-billed costs.

Countermeasures Against Impersonation-Based "Fake Ads"

To combat impersonation-style "fake ads", LINE Yahoo continues to strengthen monitoring systems using AI, patrols, and user reporting mechanisms.

In 2025, Yahoo! Ads received 20 user reports requesting removal of ads due to impersonation. Additionally, 869 ads were rejected for reasons such as directing users to unverified LINE Official Accounts, even without user reports. LINE Ads received 2 user reports related to impersonation and rejected 60 ads for similar reasons.

Collaboration with Government and Public Institutions

LINE Yahoo collaborates with government agencies, public institutions, and related organizations to improve advertising quality and transparency. The company regularly participates in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Digital Advertising Working Group (WG)", providing updates on review systems, standards, and anti-fraud measures. It also contributed to the LDP's "Deepfake Countermeasures Project Team", presenting ad review systems and advertiser verification processes to combat deepfake-based impersonation and fake ads.

Additionally, LINE Yahoo engages in information sharing and discussions with relevant ministries and organizations regarding social issues such as investment fraud.

For more details, please visit:

https://www.lycbiz.com/jp/service/ly/adqualityreport/

※1 Total number of rejected ad titles, descriptions, images, destination sites, and keywords that violated ad placement guidelines, submission rules, and sales policies. This is not the count of individual ads.

※2 Total number of rejected animations, images, videos, text, and destination sites in LINE Ads.

※3 As of October 2024

Under the mission "WOW Our Users!", LINE Yahoo will continue enhancing advertising service quality and platform safety, striving to provide services that users and advertisers can trust.