Updated March 02, 2017 13:55:57

Photo: Snap's IPO is one of the most anticipated for a technology company since Twitter's stock market debut. (Supplied: Snapchat)

It might be best known for pics and quirky face filters but Snapchat's parent company is now valued at more than $30 billion.

Snap has passed its first major test on Wall Street, after the company priced its initial public offering (IPO) of 200 million non-voting shares at $17 each.

That's above the expected range of $US14 to $US16.

Snap is expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday (local time) under the symbol SNAP.

The company's IPO is one of the most anticipated for a technology company since Twitter's stock market debut in 2013.

Snap is facing tough competition

In a sense, Snap's Snapchat is ahead of the game when compared to Facebook, which launched in the era of desktop computers, and Twitter in text-based mobile.

But its user growth has slowed down in recent months.

After adding 36 million daily active users during the first half of last year, Snapchat picked up just 15 million in the second half.

Some of this is due to competitors like Facebook.

And its best ideas are copied

Growth slowed to a crawl since Facebook's Instagram cloned Snapchat's "stories" in August. With the feature, photos and videos shared by users play in a loop for 24 hours, then disappear.

The feature helped Snapchat recover from stagnant growth before, but now it is no longer unique to Snapchat.

The number of people downloading Instagram's app has been accelerating during the past six months, suggesting a gradual shift away from the Snapchat app, based on an analysis of activity in Apple's app store from financial advice site ValuePenguin.

While the higher-than-expected pricing looks good for Snap, its troubles aren't over.

Twitter, for example, shot up nearly 73 per cent on its first trading day and now trades well below its IPO price.

Facebook, meanwhile, saw its stock decline sharply for a few months after going public.

Now, it is trading more than three times its IPO price, near a record high.

AP/ABC

Topics: business-economics-and-finance, science-and-technology, computers-and-technology, internet-culture, information-and-communication, united-states

First posted March 02, 2017 13:15:22