Year
            
            

            
 
            

            
Number 
            
of IPOs
            
            

            
 
            

            
Aggregate Proceeds
            
        
        

        
        

            

            

            

        
        

            

            
1990
            
            

            
104
            
            

            
$4.08 billion
            
        
        

            

            
1991
            
            

            
273
            
            

            
$12.28 billion
            
        
        

            

            
1992
            
            

            
385
            
            

            
$20.97 billion
            
        
        

            

            
1993
            
            

            
483
            
            

            
$28.16 billion
            
        
        

            

            
1994
            
            

            
387
            
            

            
$16.24 billion
            
        
        

            

            
1995
            
            

            
432
            
            

            
$24.46 billion
            
        
        

            

            
1996
            
            

            
621
            
            

            
$40.65 billion
            
        
        

            

            
1997
            
            

            
432
            
            

            
$28.97 billion
            
        
        

            

            
1998
            
            

            
267
            
            

            
$32.20 billion
            
        
        

            

            
1999
            
            

            
457
            
            

            
$62.69 billion
            
        
        

            

            
2000
            
            

            
346
            
            

            
$60.54 billion
            
        
        

            

            
2001
            
            

            
76
            
            

            
$33.97 billion
            
        
        

            

            
2002
            
            

            
67
            
            

            
$22.11 billion
            
        
        

            

            
2003
            
            

            
62
            
            

            
$9.58 billion
            
        
        

            

            
2004
            
            

            
179
            
            

            
$32.04 billion
            
        
        

            

            
2005
            
            

            
162
            
            

            
$28.37 billion
            
        
        

            

            

            

        
        

            

            
1990-2005
            
            

            
4,733
            
            

            
$457.3 billion
            
        
    

What I find interesting is the rising percentage of tech companies in those IPOs:

Not too surprisingly, there have been quite a few IPOs in the emerging markets and ethanol industry. Ethanol, in my opinion, is way too overrated. Many people know that there is no way we can meet estimates in a few years with corn ethanol (For those of you that haven't been looking into this, see this article). But, the hype is still raising the demand, and as a result companies need extra money for financing and to up production.

While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I think the hype has gone a little far and there is way too much confidence in this industry. It reminds me of a smaller tech rush, where everyone was extremely confident in the stock market and tech stocks. The hype only lasted for so long. The only difference I see with ethanol is that it has some government backing and support, which might make all the difference.

Emerging markets have also had a good amount of IPOs coming in, for an obvious reason: Opportunity. A recent one is an Indian outsourcing firm, WNS ltd. But, there are very few Indian ADRs already, so this isn't as big of a deal as, for example, China. This article from 2004 explains the excitement that was involved with China back then. To show you the larger amount of excitement around Chinese ADRs: In 2005 eleven ADR IPOs were filed, and out of those eleven companies, eight were Chinese.

IPOs can be a useful way to see the publics excitement on an industry and company, and thanks to Jay Ritter it is much easier to find IPO data. One more interesting article on this year's IPO world:

• SEC Sees Most 1-Day IPO Filings in 6 Yrs.