Japan's Line Corp saw its shares rocket on their Tokyo debut today, extending a strong start in New York the day before.
The IPO takes the messaging app operator's value to $8.6 billion in the year's biggest tech IPO.
Line opened at 4,900 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, 48.5% above the initial public offering (IPO) price of 3,300 yen, thanks to demand from investors hungry for a rare chance to invest in a tech startup. The stock closed at 4,345 yen.
The Tokyo offering came after Line sold about 70% more shares in New York that closed 26.6% above the 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 while expanding beyond strongholds of Japan and Southeast Asia.
But its 218 million monthly active users pales in comparison to the 1 billion of market-leader WhatsApp and 900 million of Messenger, both owned by Facebook.
In China, Tencent Holdings' WeChat dominates.
Line launched its app to overcome downed networks in the aftermath of an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and quickly emerged as Japan's dominant mobile messaging platform.
But the firm itself is controlled by South Korean online media provider Naver whose stake is now 80.8%.
Line earns the bulk of revenue from games and the sale of emojis and electronic stickers. Last year, revenue and other operating income rose about 28.3% to 120.88 billion yen ($1.14 billion).
But it reported a net loss of 7.97 billion yen, compared with profit of 2 billion yen in 2014.
