Pinterest shares skyrocket on its stock market debut

The shares of the online scrapbooking company Pinterest have climbed 25% after its listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

The shares opened at $ 23.75 and climbed to $ 24.89 after a price of $ 19.

This amount was above the expected range of $ 15 and $ 17 and generated net proceeds of $ 1.4 billion.

Zoom Video Communications videoconferencing company, meanwhile, opened its $ 65 Nasdaq debut, more than 80% more than its initial public purchase price of $ 36 per share.

Pinterest is a social scrapbooking website that allows users to search different topics, from DIY projects to travel tips, with results often showing infographics.

It also allows users to create social "forums" related to certain topics or themes, and encourages users to follow each other and follow their forums.

The company earns money through advertisements placed among the "pins" or posts that users upload to the site.

Pinterest's stock market listing is an undeniable sign of investor appetite for "unicorns" – private venture-backed companies valued at more than $ 1 billion.

The listing comes before the highly anticipated Uber debut next month on the stock market.

The loss-making company is expected to raise about $ 10 billion and be valued at $ 100 billion.

Uber, his rival Lyft, was one of the first unicorns to float this year. However, since its IPO at Nasdaq in March, its share has fallen by more than 22%.

Other companies expected to go public in 2019 include the AirBnB home sharing site and WeWork, the office provider.

At its last private fundraiser in 2017, Pinterest was worth $ 12 billion. It is now valued at about $ 15.8 billion.

Pin or complain?

Losses are shrinking at Pinterest and sales are increasing.

Last year, pre-tax losses dropped to $ 62.5 million from $ 181.8 million two years ago. Revenues reached $ 755.9 million last year, up from $ 298 million in 2016.

Pinterest said its business was highly dependent on advertisers and that a slowdown in its spending could be detrimental to it.

It also expects to "incur operating losses in the future and may never achieve or maintain profitability".