( CNN ) -- When the dust settled on LinkedIn 's IPO on Thursday afternoon , the company was valued at $ 8.9 billion , making it worth more than household names like JC Penney , Electronic Arts and Chipotle . As the biggest Internet IPO since Google and the first pure social networking site to go public , its jaw-dropping opening-day surge of 109 % will also go down as a watershed moment for the Web , as historically significant as the debuts of Netscape in 1995 , TheGlobe.com in 1998 and Google in 2004 . Whereas Netscape 's IPO symbolized the dawn of the dotcom boom , TheGlobe.com 's epitomized the height of irrational exuberance and Google 's ushered in a renaissance of tech innovation after the Internet bubble burst , LinkedIn 's debut will be remembered as social media 's arrival on the capitalist stage known as Wall Street . For starters , LinkedIn 's lofty valuation by most anyone 's standards ( at Thursday 's closing price of $ 94 , it 's trading at 36 times its 2010 revenue ; Google trades at five times ) will have venture capitalists scrambling to take their Internet investments public . As venture capitalist Albert Wenger put it on Twitter , `` LinkedIn is Netscape of this decade . IPO window blown wide open . '' Further , the social dynamics that companies like LinkedIn thrive on offer something completely different from the first-generation Internet companies : incredibly rapid and organic growth . Whereas in the 1990s , Web companies shelled out tens of millions of dollars on advertising to find users , today 's social media leaders like LinkedIn acquire new users through network effects -- their services become more valuable to users when their friends sign up . This trend is n't going away , and there are undoubtedly dozens if not hundreds of little-known or yet-to-be-founded startups that will go from zero to publicly traded juggernaut in remarkably shorts periods of time . Add to that the fact that Internet companies with a lot more sex appeal than LinkedIn -- including Facebook , Groupon , Pandora , Yelp and Zynga ( makers of FarmVille ) -- are all likely to go public within the next year , and you have LinkedIn taking the pole position in what will be a tidal wave of social media companies entering the public markets . Aside from the almost inevitable historical significance , however , is the new dynamic that will be created for social media companies that IPO . As entities that depend on their users to grow through word of mouth , there will suddenly be a need for community-centric services to balance the needs of their members with the expectations of Wall Street . There are only a few examples to draw on to predict how this may play out . In their `` Founders ' IPO Letter '' in 2004 , Google 's Sergey Brin and Larry Page wrote that their goal was , `` to develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible . In pursuing this goal , we may do things that we believe have a positive impact on the world , even if the near term financial returns are not obvious . '' Indeed , the company 's stock has been punished at times when investments in businesses that have become enormously important to Google -- like Android -- were n't showing results on the bottom line . In the long run , of course , this philosophy has helped Google 's stock price increase by more than five times since going public . While some of today 's soon-to-be-public social media companies might not be quite so aspirational , they certainly will face similar challenges . Will Pandora play more ads on its Internet radio service to beef up its numbers ? Will the quality of Groupon 's daily deals diminish as it looks to keep its tremendous growth rate intact ? Will Facebook finally push the privacy envelope too far in the name of meeting earnings estimates ? These are the types of decisions that the current generation of Internet companies will have to make when they enter the public markets . We 've already seen one prominent example of a company not finding the right balance and the dire consequences that can result . While MySpace 's fall from grace can be attributed to a variety of factors , there is no disputing that innovation and user experience languished after its 2005 acquisition by News Corp. , paving the way for Facebook to swoop in and take the social networking crown . Returning to LinkedIn , while today 's story about its IPO may be about whether it represents a new financial bubble in the Internet sector , the story in years to come will be its symbolism in changing the world in which social media companies operate . Let 's hope , as Sergey and Larry put it so well in 2004 , that the change leaves a positive impact on the world .
LinkedIn 's stock market debut is the biggest Internet launch since Google . It may inspire little - known companies to become publicly traded companies . LinkedIn 's success may create a new dynamic for social media companies that IPO .