The clock has started for one of the most eagerly awaited market debuts of 2017: that of Snapchat, the popular messaging service.

The social network’s parent, Snap Inc., has filed confidentially to go public, with an eye toward being valued at more than $30 billion, people briefed on the matter said Tuesday. That would make Snap the third-most-valuable technology company at the time of its market debut, after Alibaba and Facebook.

The company is aiming to begin having its shares traded as soon as March, though the final timing for an offering has not been determined.

The confidential filing, made with the Securities and Exchange Commission before the presidential election last week, comes amid a relative drought in the market for initial public offerings. There have been 96 offerings of companies with a market value of more than $50 million in the United States so far this year, down 41 percent from 2015, according to data from Renaissance Capital.