* Shares rise as much as 43 pct

* Another debutant Proto Labs jumps 87 pct

By Aman Shah

Feb 24 (Reuters) - Shares of social commerce company Bazaarvoice Inc surged as much as 43 percent on their market debut, as Wall Street continued to welcome cloud-based technology stocks with large first day gains.

The company's stock opened at $16, 25 percent above its offer price, and touched a high of $17.16 in heavy trading on the Nasdaq.

Shares of another debutant, Proto Labs Inc, which makes custom prototype and low-volume plastic parts, rose as much as 87 percent to $29.99, far above its IPO price of $16.

Bazaarvoice and Proto Labs debuted after pricing IPOs above their indicated range. The last 17 companies that went public had priced their offerings within or below their expected ranges.

"The pricing is a positive sign for future offerings ... due to an improved stock market people are getting more optimistic," Morningstar analyst James Krapfel told Reuters.

John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPOscoop.com, an independent research firm predicting IPOs' opening-day performances, said: "There's a message in today's traffic ... Technology is back, and it's back in a big way."

Bazaarvoice provides its services via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that enables clients to engage directly with customers and capture consumer feedback through rising use of internet, mobile, social media and e-commerce.

The company served 737 active clients as of Jan. 31, including Wal-Mart, Dominos Pizza, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Dell, Expedia and American Express.

Bazaarvoice has seen 11 consecutive quarters of revenue growth and had an active client retention rate of 91.9 percent for the nine months ended Jan. 31, according to a regulatory filing.

However, questions on the long-term profitability and the company's ability to sustain its competitive advantage linger despite the opening-day buzz.

"If market growth is significant enough, we could expect other players potentially enter its (Bazaarvoice's) space, and depress returns in the long run," Krapfel said.

Bazaarvoice has posted losses every year since its inception, and recorded a net loss of about $18 million on revenue of $74.7 million for the nine months period.

Austin, Texas-based Bazaarvoice was co-founded in 2005 by current Chief Executive Brett Hurt, who owns an 11.3 percent stake in it.

Hurt was the founder of Coremetrics, a web analytics company that was bought by IBM in June 2010.

In its latest filing, Bazaarvoice, which competes with private players like PowerReviews Inc and Revieworld Ltd, said it could face competition from companies like Google and Facebook, which could expand their platforms or acquire its competitors.

"If Bazaarvoice's emerging industry ends up becoming large enough, I would expect the likes of Google or Facebook to want to participate," Krapfel added.

• A Permanent Economic Emergency