Soufun announced a partnership with the U.S. AI startup Sierra, making Soufun the exclusive partner of Sierra in Japan's market. Previously, Soufun had deployed Sierra's intelligent customer service system on its online-only mobile communication brand LINEMO, achieving significant results - the customer inquiry resolution rate increased from 83% to 97%, and the customer satisfaction score rose from 74% to 93%.
The online brand benefited first, and Sierra's valuation exceeded 100 billion yuan.
LINEMO is an online-only mobile communication brand under Soufun, which does not have physical branches, and users mainly obtain customer service support through online chats and the LINE app. Therefore, the quality of AI customer service directly affects user experience. Sierra is a conversational AI startup based in the United States, co-founded by Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor. It completed a $950 million funding round in 2026, with a post-money valuation of about $15.8 billion (approximately 107.255 billion yuan). Currently, over 40% of Fortune 500 companies have adopted its AI software.
Large-scale promotion still needs to overcome compliance barriers
This collaboration is part of Soufun's "Activate AI for Society" strategy. Soufun is developing AI call center solutions based on this strategy and plans to promote them to more companies in the Japanese market in the future. However, Soufun also acknowledged that large-scale promotion still needs to comply with Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information and relevant regulations on personal data processing and cross-border data transmission. Especially for customer communication data in the telecommunications industry, regulatory requirements are particularly strict. This means that the commercialization of AI customer service in Japan still requires finding a balance between technological innovation and data compliance.
