Line Friends will become the first Asian character brand to open a large-scale official store in the US.

Its store in New York City’s Times Square, opening in July, also marks the one-year anniversary of Line listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Line Friends has opened stores in 11 other countries and regions including China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan, and had a pop-up store in New York City in 2014.

In New York, the store will have about 430 sqm of retail space on Broadway, and will attract attention with LED billboards.

There are 73 official and pop-up Line Friends stores around the world, and the brand also collaborates regularly with different brands, such as pen company Lamy and Italian stationery group Moleskine.

Line Friends grew from sticker characters for the messenger app Line, which has 220 million users globally.