Investors were expected to be hungry to get a piece of Facebook, which has become a global phenomenon since its humble beginnings in 2004 as a project of then-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and his classmates.
Zuckerberg, 28, wearing his trademark hooded sweatshirt, remotely rang the bell to open the Nasdaq, marking the start of trade.
He told the crowd at the company's new campus in Menlo Park, California, that going public was a "milestone" but added: "Our mission isn't to be a public company. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected."
Trip Chowdhry, who follows Facebook for Global Equities Research, said the "lacklustre" opening was because the company had failed to answer crucial questions about how it will boost revenues and adapt to the mobile internet.
"Management cannot sing and dance around the key issues," he said.
There are concerns about Facebook's long-term ability to generate ad revenues, fuelled by General Motors' decision earlier this week to pull its advertising.
GM had been spending about $10 million on paid advertising and $30 million on unpaid marketing on Facebook.
Another shadow hanging over Facebook is privacy.
Some consumer and privacy advocates say Facebook has been too loose with user data and hope that as a publicly traded company it may change its tune.
The IPO gave Facebook a dizzying value of $104 billion at its market debut.
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