Investors snatch Snap stock, but concerns abound

The company’s stock price opened at $24 a share, and it was valued at $33 billion—not bad for an app that launched in 2011 and heavily depends on users’ selfies and in-the-moment videos. It closed at $24.48—a 44 percent increase from the $17 initial share price.

Of that $33 billion, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel’s cut is reported to be around $6 billion, making the 26-year-old one of the tech world’s wealthiest executives (on paper, anyway).

Spiegel and co-founder Bobby Murphy rang the bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange. In the following hours, they saw share prices of Snap soar, and Snap had the highest volume of trades among any company Thursday, as 216 million shares changed hands.

Snapchat’s success has been largely attributed to widespread use among millennials, who spend a reported 30 minutes per day consuming user and publisher content on the service—not to mention creating their own snaps and stories.

The platform has also seen growth in recent months among older demographics, and the company reported that sales from advertisers are expected to top $1 billion this year.

Though investors were keen to snatch up shares of the platform-turned-camera company, not everyone is positive about Snap’s future.