Line stays focused on Asia despite splashy IPO

Lisbon

IT STAGED one of the year's biggest IPOs but messaging app Line, while a huge draw among teens in Asia, says it has no big ambitions to take on Western giants such as Facebook on their home turf.

The Japan-based company known for its popular cartoon "stickers" - a virtual communication tool for users too busy to write a text - instead means to focus on taking messaging to the next stage in its core Asian markets of Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand.