Snap shares debut after better-than-expected IPO

The Snapchat logo appears on a phone screen
(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Snap raised $3.4 billion in its better-than-expected initial public offering of stock on Wednesday. The company, which is the parent of the popular messaging app Snapchat, sold 200 million shares at $17 each, above the projected range of $14 to $16. The pricing values the company at $24 billion. Snap's stock makes its market debut on Thursday. Snap's IPO is among the most anticipated tech debuts since Twitter's in 2013 and Facebook's in 2012. Snapchat had 158 million daily active users at the start of the year, most of them young people, from teens to those in their early 30s. The app's growth slowed last year as it faced competition from Facebook's Instagram photo-sharing app.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.