SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Naver Corp. said its subsidiary Line Corp. that operates a popular mobile messaging app is considering listing its shares in Tokyo or New York.
Naver, South Korea’s largest Internet company, said Wednesday that Line could sell shares in an initial public offering in both Japan and the U.S.
The statement was made in regulatory filing after earlier media reports that Line had submitted an IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Naver confirmed the report but added the IPO decision was not final. The app is also called Line.
The move highlights the growth of Asian mobile messaging apps, driven in large part by the popularity of smartphones and connecting to the Internet through mobile devices. The apps have been a threat to longer-established Internet companies, which have responded by taking a stake in the upstart industry through acquisitions.
As of last month, Line had more than 450 million users. It has tens of millions of users in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and Spain.