Twitter’s shares have been valued at $26 each ahead of its debut on the New York Stock Exchange today trading under the TWTR ticker.

The company will offer 70m shares of its common stock to the public, enabling it to raise $1.82bn and valuing the company at a total of $18bn. The company’s underwriters – including its founders and other investors – have been offered an additional 10.5m shares of common stock.

The valuation exceeds Twitter’s own expectations, set out on Monday to fall between $23 to $25, but falls far short of the record $38 per share, or $104bn valuation, achieved when Facebook went public last year.

Twitter has a significantly smaller audience than its closest peer, reporting around 230m in its S-1 filing, compared to around 845m at Facebook when it went live. And while Facebook posted revenue of $3.7bn the year before its public offering, Twitter’s revenue to date in 2013 is $422m, with growing net losses of $64.4m in Q3.

Twitter will be keen to avoid the technical glitches and accusations of overvaluation that marked the Facebook IPO. The company is working hard to create partnerships with brands to capitalise on the growing mobile audience the it has attracted.