The share price for Twitter has risen by more than 80% within the first two hours of trading by the company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The social networking site started trading this afternoon and had set a price of US$26 for its public stock offering.

However the price leapt to more than US$49 dollars by 4pm this evening.

Founded in 2006, Twitter has nearly 240 million users around the world but has yet to make a profit. The service is available in more than 33 languages.

The stock is trading under the ticker symbol TWTR. This was the moment a group of Tweeters rang the Opening Bell.