Facebook status update: opening price hits $43

UPDATE 16:20 GMT: NASDAQ halted trading due to the unprecedented demand from the retail investors.

16:37: Shares of Facebook began trading at $42.05.

After a lot of talk and several status updates, Facebook shares will begin trading in New York today, with the company announcing on Thursday it valued shares at $38 (£24) each, thus making the firm worth $104 billion (£66 billion).

We all know the story of the social network company, but it’s worth another recap: Harvard undergraduate and eventual drop out Mark Zuckerberg created the site in his bedroom with his friends, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes in 2004 following the success of Facemash, a site that presented users with two students and make them choose the hotter of the pair. 

The numbers for Facebook quickly escalated so that today more than 900 million people have an account with the eight-year-old company.

Here, we will keep you up-to-date with the latest developments on Facebook’s flotation – one of the biggest and most eagerly anticipated in history – which will make past and present employees millionaires.

Three years after the IPO, two-thirds of (tech) companies had negative returns. Around 60% of companies with offerings since 2010 have negative returns so far.

New York Times

Best of the web

• CNBC in America has released a report on private trades in Facebook since 2008, woth one buyer picking Facebook stock for only $3.50.
• Tim Bradshaw's tech column at The Financial Times points out the warning bells being sounded about the IPO, with many saying its just a bubble and some arguing that Pinterest will be more valuable than Facebook in five years.        
• The New York Times's graphic whizz-kids created an interactive chart looking at the IPOs of 2,400 technology firms over the years. The chart notes that while most show a good first day of trading, over three years two-thirds of the companies post negative returns. 
• The New Yorker's Evan Osnos has a piece on how the Chinese are viewing the network's IPO, arguing that it exposes the weakness of Chinese innovation.  
• Today's flotation marks the next chapter in the Internet story, states today's Time's editorial, with Facebook's power epitomising the 'communications revolution based on personal connections.' Of course, whereas Apple and Google have tangible customers, Facebook customers are far more fickle. 'How much value will Facebook create?' asks the editorial.
• Henderson Global Technology fund manager Stuart O'Gorman told Citywire that Facebook has a 'difficult balance' to strike to improve its advertising revenue while not damaging the user experience.

How much will the founders make?

The Guardian provided a list of how much the key Facebook players will make from the IPO, with Zuckerberg already work $18.95 billion and his fortune post-IPO to rise to outer space.

Congrats to everyone involved in the project from day one till today, and I especially wanted to congratulate Mark Zukerberg on keeping tremendous stead-fast focus, however hard that was, on making the world a more open and connected place.

Eduardo Saverin

Thank you Facebook video

For some Facebook users, they just couldn't resist making a video thanking Zuckerberg and Co. for the joy he has brought them.