Twitter stock jumps 72 percent on first day despite naysayers

Twitter closed the bell on its first day of trading today with shares at $44.90, a dazzling initial public offering by all accounts.

When the market opened, shares for the social network instantly jumped more than 70 percent above the offering price, at one point hitting a high of 89 percent. Twitter was priced last night at $26, and opened the day at $45.10, remaining in that range throughout the day.

Demand for the shares was high, despite that the San Francisco-company is not yet profitable. Expect Twitter to try to generate new revenues in the coming year. The company is under the gun to keep people engaged while implementing more advertising on web and mobile.

Twitter raised a bit less than $2 billion from the sale, making it one of the top Internet IPOs of all time. However, the high stock pop suggests that the company could’ve made more, which is a bittersweet outcome for investors and executives.

Not everyone expected such a successful public offering from Twitter. Investors and gray-market speculators believed the IPO would have a 53 percent pop, but social media experts almost universally panned the offering, with 94 percent of the IPO mentions on the Twitter network itself being negative.

VentureBeat reporter Eric Blattberg covered the IPO from the New York Stock Exchange. His pictures certainly demonstrate the mayhem and excitement around Twitter’s market debut.