Miranda Kerr’s fiance makes $272 million from Snapchat shares

It’s popular with young people, but growth has slowed in recent months.

The Venice, CA-based parent of social platform Snapchat had announced an offering of 200 million shares priced at $17.

The $24 billion valuation is slightly above the range the company aimed for two weeks ago when its IPO plans were made public.

Snap was widely expected to price its shares between $14 and $16, which would have valued the company anywhere between $19.5 billion and $22.3 billion. Twitter (TWTR), with its November 2013 IPO, raised $1.8 billion – though all three IPOs pale in comparison to the $25 billion raised by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA) with its September 2014 IPO, the biggest ever.

CEO Evan Spiegel rung the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, signaling the company’s public debut, a crowd of protesters gathered outside its Venice Beach, Calif., headquarters.

Such a pop, though positive for a company’s momentum, does not ensure long-term success. Thursday morning, Snap opened at $24, up 41% from Wednesday night’s pricing. The IPO book was oversubscribed by more than ten times, which indicates that today will be a hit for Snap.

IPOboutique.com gives the Snap IPO a rating of 3, or moderate buy. After the father saw how much his kids used the app, he led his company to invest in the app.

But you probably won’t be able to avoid non-voting Snap stock for long. The company has signed multi-billion deals with Google and Amazon for their cloud computing powers. It also put Snap literally closer to its audience.

The remaining question, going forward, is whether Snap can deliver the same kind of performance that Facebook has – or if it ends up like Twitter, stalling out and watching its stock tank going forward.

Despite Snapchat’s sluggish user growth and the company’s hefty hosting costs, Mad Money’s Jim Cramer believes the trade will be a “phenomenal” one.

Some of this is due to competitors like Facebook.

The social networking site, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, went public in 2012, eliciting an overwhelming response from investors. It’s a chance to convince them of the worth of the new stock, deflecting any concerns they may have about how successful the company may be.