Line considers dual listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and NYSE

At present, many countries around the world have their own hottest instant messaging application tools, but also become an expensive acquisition of Internet giants. According to overseas media reports, Japan, an instant messaging application called "Japan Wechat," has submitted a prospectus to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, planning an initial public offering (IPO) and landing in the Japanese stock market.

It is reported that Nomura Securities and Morgan Stanley will be the lead underwriter. In addition, Line also considered the issue of dual listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the NYSE, which will be listed as soon as the autumn of this year. The market has valued the company at more than 1 trillion yen (about 9.85 billion U.S. dollars). Yasuhiro Yasujima, chief economist at Japanese research firm NLI Research, predicted that Line, taking into account Facebook's $ 19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp this year, is expected to surpass billions of dollars in value as Japan's most popular instant messaging application.

After WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook, the industry has been tracking the movement of Line to see if the company will sell it outside or raise money by going public. Line executives had previously said that the company is more inclined to IPO.

Since its formal introduction to the market in 2011, Line has been booming. In April, the company announced a breakthrough in the number of registered users of 400 million. Chief Executive Morikawa Ryu plans to reach 500 million to 600 million Line users by the end of this year and will grow to at least 1 billion in 2015. Line is currently involved in games, comics, free voice and video calling, photo and video sharing, and more. In addition, Line is very good at "doing as the Romans do" to achieve service localization. In addition to Japan, Thailand and other Asian markets, Line's business has made great strides in Spain and has already entered the markets of Latin America and the United States. Previously, Line released the Chinese version of "Even Me", officially announced its entry into the Chinese market. Although it is a free application, but Line still get a lot of revenue. Last year, Line contributed 34.3 billion yen (about 338 million U.S. dollars) in revenue to its parent company, which has either made a profit or not.

Some analysts said Line ready to market reflects the new wave of global mobile communications, but also can not help but think of whether WeChat will also be brewing in the near future separate listing. Currently, WeChat Tencent has topped the list of instant messaging companies in the world. In the first quarter, WeChat Active Subscribers reached 396 million. Earlier, the market had heard WeChat or choose to list in Singapore news.