Yelp sees stock jump 64 per cent in first day of trading

Social reviews platform Yelp has become the latest technology firm to see its stock price surge after floating on the stock market.

On Friday, the company saw its stock price close the day's trading up 64 per cent on its initial public offering. Yelp shares closed the day trading at $24.58 up from an opening price of $15 per share.

The IPO comes eight years after Yelp was first founded.

The San Francisco-based firm has become popular among consumers for its user-generated reviews and ratings system. Business owners, however, have at times had a contentious relationship with the site, with many taking umbrage at bad reviews.

The company also found itself at the centre of controversy last summer when it was among the parties that filed complaints against Google alleging anti-competitive behaviour.

Yelp's IPO is the latest in what has become a steady stream of social media and web service companies going public. Last summer, professional networking service LinkedIn saw its share price double in the trading immediately after its IPO.

Later in the year, web services Pandora and GroupOn issued their own IPOs with solid results. The firms were later joined by social gaming specialist Zynga.

While many tech firms can expect to see an initial 'pop', when share prices rocket following their IPO, the real challenge is maintaining that momentum. Zynga, for example has now recovered after post-IPO falls, while Pandora stock is currently trading below its IPO price.

The biggest public offering, however, is set to take place later this year when social networking giant Facebook undertakes its IPO. The company last month filed for an offering which could send the value of the company soaring upwards of $100bn.