Like some exotic fruit you can’t find even in New York, Line — the Japanese messaging app — will send a certain group of New Yorkers into a frenzy upon its arrival today: Wall Street. (The company is set for its IPO today.) New Yorkers may not use the app much, but in Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan, it’s “everything” according to one report on CNN. It’s considered a combo of WhatsApp, Twitter, Uber, Zynga and Spotify. In tech investment speak, Line is like a blessing of unicorns.
Line has nearly 220 million monthly users. Line is the fifth tech IPO this year. Founded in 2011, Line’s user base is approximately the size of Twitter’s. The IPO values Line at about $7 billion.
