Tech Company IPOs Are Rising to the Top Again

The recent Twilio IPO, on the eve of Brexit, has seemingly defined a bright new future for the tech IPO. While analysts continue to discuss whether it’ll steadily rise like Facebook or steadily descend like GoPro, the message to the mobile app development community is loud and clear: tech IPOs are hot again.

Twilio doubled their initial value in the first 24 hours of trading, and those numbers have held strong for longer than other tech IPOs in the past couple years, most of which almost immediately started dropping as investors fled volatility and market share doubts.

Line, the Japanese messaging app giant, is going public today, promising to solidify the potential for tech IPOs. Investors are already returning to tech across the board as public fears that mobile tech might drop in value are reassured.

Line’s IPO price is set at 3,300 yen per share, significantly higher than their initial value around 3000. The only question for investors and app developers as the popular app goes public is, will it continue to grow — or are messaging apps a trend that will die down? Some pundits fear that messaging apps will be replaced by a more universal technology, or that a titan like Facebook will come to dominate the worldwide market for SMS mobile app alternatives.

Regardless of what happens, it’ll be fascinating for NYC mobile app developers to see how a messaging titan fares on the public market. The outcome could have ripple effects in the mobile messaging startup space for years to come.