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Whatsapp competitor Line has filed to go public

Jun 10, 2016, 22:33 IST

Takeshi Idezawa, chief executive officer of LINE Corp, speaks during a media briefing titled &quotLine Conference Tokyo 2016" in Urayasu, east of Tokyo, Japan, March 24, 2016. The head of messaging app service operator Line Corp said on Thursday that it could still seek an initial public offering (IPO), although it put plans for a listing on hold in August.REUTERS/Yuya Shino

Japan's most popular messaging app, Line, has filed to go public.

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The Tokyo-based company announced its plans to list 35 million shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange in a regulatory filing on Friday.

It plans to go public on July 15, according to The Wall Street Journal's Alexander Martin, who first reported the filing.

Line is a subsidiary of the South Korean company Naver Corp. It had 218 million monthly active users as of March, according to the filing.

Line, like the popular messaging app Whatsapp, lets users make free voice calls and send free text messages from anywhere in the world.

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The app is used in 230 countries around the world, according to Jeanie Han, the CEO of LINE Euro-Americas, who spoke to Business Insider's James Cook in March.

It started out as a tool to help people stay in touch following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan, but now consists of 65 different apps.

Celebrities including Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, and Maroon 5 also use the app to promote their music.

Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Goldman Sach, and JPMorgan are acting as joint global coordinators on the deal.

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