Reddit's stock price was up nearly 50% after opening trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The stock was hovering around $50 a share at 2 p.m. after opening at $34 in its initial public offering earlier in the afternoon.

Reddit, Inc. is selling 22,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock in the IPO.

The stock of the San Francisco based company was trading under the ticker symbol "RDDT."

Reddit was founded in 2005 by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman.

The self-proclaimed "front page of the internet" is offering shares to contributors.

The "Redditors" who comment on its boards and the moderators who manage them will have the opportunity to get in at the start of the sale.

"I hope they believe in Reddit and support Reddit," Huffman told CNBC. "But the goal is just to get them in the deal. Just like any professional investor.

The offering is a departure from traditional IPO protocol, where initial shares are sold to institutional investors and fund managers who then start trading the stock on the open market.

The positive response to the IPO could set the stage for more tech companies to reach the stock market this year, the New York Times reports.

Reddit's market capitalization rose above $9 billion with the price surge.

The debut came on an overall strong day for Wall Street with stocks extended their push to record highs. The Dow Jones Insdustrial Average was reaching close to toucing the 40,000 mark.