The maker of messaging app LINE is reportedly looking to capitalise on its impressive user growth with plans for an IPO to take place as soon as November.

Sources told Bloomberg that LINE is considering listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and either the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. Nikkei reported LINE was looking at listing in Tokyo as long ago as October last year.

The Japan-based company, which is controlled by South Korean company Naver, is believed to be making preparations for the IPO with Morgan Stanley and Nomura Holdings.

Sources said the company could have a market value of more than $9.8 billion. However, LINE is yet to decide the size of the IPO or which banks will be the lead underwriters, according to the sources.

A representative from LINE told Bloomberg that an IPO is “one of the options for management” but that nothing has been decided at this point.

LINE recently claimed to have reached 420 million registered users, putting it on par with the likes of WhatsApp (500 million monthly active users) and WeChat (396 million).

It is the most popular messaging app in Japan but efforts to localise its services and content for other markets has contributed to a significant user base outside of its home market.

LINE Corp CEO, Akira Morikawa, said in April the company is aiming to reach one billion users during 2015, more than doubling its current user base. Morikawa previously set a target of reaching at least 500 million registered users by the end of 2014.

As well as messaging, LINE also offers games on its platform and has 80 million users of its LINE camera app. It recently extended the LINE Call voice offering, enabling low cost calls to mobile phones and landlines both domestically and internationally in Japan, the US, Mexico, Spain, Thailand and the Philippines.

In addition, LINE launched Business Connect, a customisable corporate service that allows business users to send targeted, optimised messages to specific users; and LINE Creators Market, an open platform for the sale of user-produced stickers.

The new services are part of the ‘Beyond LINE’ initiative in which the company is looking to evolve the services it offers users.

For the first quarter of 2014, LINE Corp reported that revenue generated from the messaging app business was JPY14.6 billion ($143.7 million), up 223 per cent year-on-year and 19 per cent compared to the prior quarter.

Other messaging app makers are also looking to capitalise on the continued healthy growth of their user bases. Kakao is planning an IPO in October once its merger with South Korean internet portal Daum closes, while WhatsApp is in the process of being acquired by Facebook for $19 billion and Viber agreed to be acquired by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten for $900 million.