Information technology news site The Next Web drew up an article detailing the reasons why a planned public listing of messaging company Line could put the company's value at a rumored USD28 billion.

Yesterday, Korean news site MT reported that Line had been gearing up for an initial public listing. Line was reportedly planning to list either on the Tokyo Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ. Earlier reports had indicated that the messaging company was aiming to go public by the end of the year as it was focused on getting 300 million in registered users first.

However, the two-year old business had a change of mind. Line and similar apps had gained traction in Asian markets recently, managing to beat Facebook as the top social media platform, according to The Next Web. Line has 230 million registered users, 47 million of it came from Japan and 17 million from Thailand. According to Line's second quarter earnings report, it earned a record USD132 million, and had made more than USD10 million each month just for the sale of its mobile stocker packs and over USD27 million in revenue from gaming apps.