Successful Snapchat IPO may inspire Bay Area tech companies to go public

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- All eyes were on Los Angeles-based Snap on Thursday as the parent company for social media sensation Snapchat made its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.

It closed Thursday at $24.48, 44 percent higher than the original $17 offering price.

Snap's successful IPO may have a direct impact on our economy here in the Bay Area.

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Barrett Daniels is an IPO consultant, focused on tech. He thinks it may inspire local tech companies considering going public to get serious.

"Everybody here in the Bay Area is absolutely watching this very closely and it's gone better than I think anybody could have really envisioned," Daniels said. "The big thing is that young people love it."

"70 percent of 18-24 year olds use Snapchat in the U.S.," said CNET's Richard Nieva. He points out that Snapchat's popularity with millennials is appealing to advertisers and investors and is not a quality universally replicated within tech.

"Not every company has that compelling pitch that they can offer, so it's really tough to say whether this will get things going for other companies thinking about IPO-ing," Nieva said.

Daniels said he feels Bay Area companies will start getting ready to go public this year and then in 2018, we may actually see a big tech IPO year, like when Facebook went public in 2012.