Year’s Biggest Tech IPO- Line Launch Goes Well
Japan's Line Corp saw its shares rocket on their Tokyo debut, extending a strong start in New York the day before, and taking the value of the messaging app firm to $8.6 billion in the year's biggest tech IPO.
The operator of the world's seventh most-used messaging app listed first in New York in a move widely seen as a sign of determination to challenge global peers and eventually expand beyond strongholds of Japan and Southeast Asia.
However, Line's 218 million global monthly active users pale in comparison to the 1 billion of market-leader WhatsApp and 900 million of Messenger, both owned by Facebook Inc. Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat, which dominates in China, has 697 million.
"We're providing the same kind of services as Facebook and Google, the internet giants of the world," Chi...