The impact of platform business models on the valuations of unicorn companies

IF 5.7 2区 管理学 Q1 INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE Information and Organization Pub Date : 2024-06-27 DOI:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2024.100521
Michael A. Cusumano , Annabelle Gawer , David B. Yoffie , Sarah von Bargen , Kwesi Acquay
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Abstract

Despite the importance of digital platforms in the global economy, there has been little systematic or quantitative analysis of how investors value platforms and the scope of their business models in private or public markets. This paper seeks to fill this gap in part by analyzing how unicorn valuations are affected by “platformness” (the degree to which a firm incorporates at least some elements of a multisided business model with the potential to generate network effects). We investigated 959 unicorns (private companies valued at $1 billion or more) existing as of December 31, 2021, to assess whether investors placed a higher value on firms in different regions of the world and operating with platform businesses rather than offering only “standalone” products or services. We found that companies with some elements of a platform business model commanded a significantly higher average valuation compared to non-platform companies. These higher average valuations also varied by location: North America 129%, Europe 68%, and Asia-Pacific (APAC) 39%. The geographical variations are likely due to greater investor interest in platform businesses in the United States as well as other characteristics more common among North American unicorn platforms. More than half of the unicorn sample and more than half of platform unicorns originated in North America. We also found that investors paid 34% more for “innovation platforms” (these enable third-party complementary innovations through application programming interfaces) versus “transaction platforms” (these bring together two market sides as in product or service marketplaces, financial exchanges, or social media and messaging websites). Platform unicorns with the potential to generate and exploit global network effects also had approximately 26% higher valuations than platforms limited to non-global network effects.

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平台商业模式对独角兽公司估值的影响
尽管数字平台在全球经济中举足轻重,但对于投资者如何评价平台及其在私人或公开市场上的业务模式范围,却鲜有系统或定量的分析。本文试图通过分析独角兽企业的估值如何受到 "平台性"(一家公司至少在多方面业务模式中融入了某些元素,并有可能产生网络效应的程度)的影响来填补这一空白。我们对截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的 959 家独角兽企业(估值 10 亿美元或以上的私营企业)进行了调查,以评估投资者是否更看重位于世界不同地区、以平台业务运营而非仅提供 "独立 "产品或服务的企业。我们发现,与非平台公司相比,具有平台业务模式某些要素的公司的平均估值要高得多。这些较高的平均估值也因地区而异:北美为 129%,欧洲为 68%,亚太地区为 39%。这种地域差异可能是由于投资者对美国平台企业的兴趣更大,以及北美独角兽平台更常见的其他特征。半数以上的独角兽样本和半数以上的平台型独角兽源自北美。我们还发现,投资者为 "创新平台"(这些平台通过应用程序接口实现第三方互补创新)和 "交易平台"(这些平台汇集了两个市场,如产品或服务市场、金融交易所或社交媒体和信息网站)支付的费用高出34%。具有产生和利用全球网络效应潜力的平台型独角兽企业的估值也比仅限于非全球网络效应的平台高出约 26%。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
11.20
自引率
1.60%
发文量
18
期刊介绍: Advances in information and communication technologies are associated with a wide and increasing range of social consequences, which are experienced by individuals, work groups, organizations, interorganizational networks, and societies at large. Information technologies are implicated in all industries and in public as well as private enterprises. Understanding the relationships between information technologies and social organization is an increasingly important and urgent social and scholarly concern in many disciplinary fields.Information and Organization seeks to publish original scholarly articles on the relationships between information technologies and social organization. It seeks a scholarly understanding that is based on empirical research and relevant theory.
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