Messaging app company Line says it won’t hold an IPO this year after all

Line, the mobile messaging app from Japan with 500 million registered users, is putting its public listing on hold after revealing that it won’t seek an IPO this year as previously planned.

The decision was initially confirmed in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. It emerged in August that Line had filed paperwork in both the US and Japan, hinting that it could pursue a dual listing that analysts speculate would value it at around $10 billion.

Line’s business model sees it offer its chat app for free, but monetize around games, virtual items like stickers and as a marketing platform for companies. Its figures are impressive for a messaging app company — it posted $177 million revenue for its last quarter — but it doesn’t reveal profit/loss and may be wary that Alibaba’s record-breaking IPO has raised the bar for Asian tech listings.

Update: Line’s full statement, which was provided to TNW, is below:

While LINE Corporation has been considering an IPO in Japan and the US, we also made it clear that we never finalized any concrete details, including whether or not to actually list, where and when to list, or other such decisions.

We have still not finalized any concrete details, as mentioned above, but have decided not to pursue an IPO, either domestically or abroad, this year.

We plan to disclose relevant decisions once they are finalized.

➤ Line decides against an IPO this year [Wall Street Journal — paywalled]

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