Share of Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, has surged by 41 per cent in their debut. Snap began trading today, with its shares surged from their offer price of $US17 ($22) to $US24 ($31), giving the company a market cap of more than $US33 billion ($43 billion).

Snapchat’s CEO Evan Spiegel earned $A272 million by sharing 16 million of his shares in the offering. The company’s co-founders, Spiegel and CTO Bobby Murphy, stock holdings currently worth around $US5 billion ($A6.6 billion) each.

The two founders will retain control over all shareholder decisions and investors buying stock in the IPO don’t have voting rights at all.

Globally, over 150 million people use Snapchat every day, watching over 10 billion videos each day and sending more than one billion Snaps each day. The company has four million active daily users in Australia   The largest audience of Snapchatters are aged 18-24 (31 per cent), followed by 25-34-year-olds (28 per cent), 13-17 (23 per cent) and 35+ (18 per cent).

Last year, it reported sales of $US405 million ($528 million) and a net loss of $US515 million ($686 million).

Spiegel’s fiancee, Miranda Kerr was also there at the New York Stock Exchange floor. Kerr and her mother Therese took to Instagram to celebrate the news:

Congratulations to my love and Snap Inc ??

A post shared by Miranda (@mirandakerr) on Mar 2, 2017 at 6:57am PST

Congratulations Evan and everyone at SNAP Inc. You have worked so hard for this. Very few will ever know the sacrifices you have all made to get to where you are. You have accomplished so much. You, your Co-Founder and your team should be so proud. You deserve every ounce of success that comes your way. @heresjohnny51 @mattykerr26 @jimmykerr2611 @mirandakerr and I are so proud of you as I know your family and friends are too. You are such an inspiration to so many. xxx

A post shared by Therese Kerr (@theresekerr) on Mar 2, 2017 at 12:05pm PST

Snap’s shares pop after $3.4 billion IPO