Twitter shares rocket at opening

Hype or high value? That’s the question still hanging over Twitter, the latest darling of the internet, which started selling its shares today.

Investors were certainly keen – for every one share in the initial offering there were 30 buy bids.

That meant they

Tiwtter’s shares spiked as soon as they

Priced at $26 dollars for the IPO the opening price was just over $45.

But can the high price be justified?

Twitter does have 230 million global users, including leaders of countries and many celebrities, but it has never made a profit and is not expected to for several years.

Indeed it lost $65 million in its most recent quarter and questions remain about long-term advertising revenue prospects.

It also lacks the ubiquity of the No. 1 social network Facebook or the “stickiness” factor that keeps people checking that site on a daily basis.

In addition a Reuters-Ipsos poll last month showed that 36 percent of people who signed up for a Twitter account say they do not use it.

Opening bell trivia

Nine-year-old Vivienne Harr rang the opening bell at the NYSE for Twitter, alongside actor Sir Patrick Stewart.

Vivienne set up a lemonade stand and ran it for 365 days raising money in a campaign against child slavery. She started her charity using the microblogging site.