LINE Corporation has announced its preliminary financial figures for FY13 Q3, the three months ending 30 September 2013.

Total revenue was $194 million (¥19.1 billion), up 48 percent quarter-on-quarter.

Of this, 52 percent or around $100 million, was generated from its LINE mobile messaging and free call service.

The company said this strong performance was due to an increase in in-app purchases. Around 60 percent of LINE sales come from game IAP - the network currently supports 39 games - with 20 percent of sales from sticker pack purchases.

Rising tide

LINE currently has 280 million users, and claims to be the market leader in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. It expects to have 300 million users by the end of 2013.

It's also has over 10 million users in India, and is expanding into Central and South America, Turkey, and Italy.

"We have seen a marked increase in user purchases from games and stickers. Added to this, new advertising services such as LINE Free Coins have seen a very favorable response, which gives us a good balance in growth between user purchases and advertising revenue," said CEO Akira Morikawa.

"However, LINE is still in the investment phase, and at the moment our focus is not on profits, but rather it is on improving our unique products to give the best possible service for our current customers, while investing in creating new services, developing new features, and pursuing marketing opportunities to expand our user base."

It has been rumoured that LINE will be looking to IPO in 2014, with a company valuation in the order of $10 billion predicted.

[source: LINE]