Investors eager to snap up Snap shares after successful IPO

“We value Snap at $10 per share”.

Not today, and not this month, but eventually, many investors, even ones who bristle at Snap Inc.’s share structure, will wind up owning a piece of the Venice company.

Snap’s IPO also is the first notable tech IPO of 2017.

Snap says 158 million people use its Snapchat app daily, but its growth rate has been declining with the advent of competition from Facebook’s Instagram. Revenue climbed nearly seven-fold in 2016, to $404 million from $59 million. The firm has invested substantially in working with media partners – including The Washington Post – to deliver news and analysis to its predominately young audience.

Snap, the company behind the widely popular Snapchat and the more recent Spectacles, has reportedly been working on a camera drone to expand its scope. Out of these, six firms, such as Renren, Groupon and Lending Club, incurred losses in the year before they went public.

You could argue Snap went public too early: It’s a secretive company ruled by CEO fiat. The IPO reportedly is oversubscribed, showing strong investor interest.

But Snap continues to struggle to make money – and it signaled a profit may not be coming soon.

Snap also runs some risk of getting the wind taken out of its sails by competitors.

Facebook stock, of course, has done well, while Twitter shares have fizzled.

The first-day jump may not be an indication of what happens to their fortunes from here.

Right now, Snap looks more like Twitter than Facebook.

Some analysts are expressing pessimism about the immediate future of the stock, pointing out that Snap’s fundamentals are closer to Twitter than Facebook.

One of the goals of the school, which is private and costs $17,000 yearly, was to make the school more affordable for families in the community.

Before the trading debut, Jordan Hiscott, chief trader at Ayondo Markets, said: “What sets it apart from other messaging apps like WhatsApp for me is the innovative features built into the app’s interface, such as the lenses function”.