Snapchat value tops $24B after IPO pricing
The valuation is more than double the size of rival Twitter and is the richest valuation in a US technology IPO since Facebook in 2012.
The Snapchat logo seen at a booth at TechFair LA, a technology job fair, in Los Angeles, California, US, January 26, 2017.
Snapchat parent Snap Inc has priced its initial public offering higher than expected to give the popular social network a market value of $24 billion.
The share sale is the first test of investor appetite for a social-media app that is beloved by teenagers and 20-somethings, who use it to apply bunny faces and vomiting rainbows onto selfies, but faces a challenge in converting "cool" into cash.
Snap said it set its initial public offering share price at $17, above the expected range of $14 to $16, because of high investor demand.
TRT World's Arabella Munro has more.
158 million users
The company had targeted a valuation of between $19.5 billion and $22.3 billion.
At $24 billion, the IPO valuation was more than double the size of rival Twitter and the richest valuation in a US technology IPO since Facebook in 2012.
Whether the valuation is justified will be decided by the markets. Snap said in its regulatory filing last month it took in $404 million in revenue in 2016, but lost $515 million.
According to the filing, 158 million people use Snapchat daily, and over 2.5 billion Snaps are created every day.
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