Valuation of Internet Companies – Selected Issues

Abstract

Authors have described selected problems related to valuation and value creation of Internet related companies. In case of intangible assets related to the new economy and Internet companies, valuation is usually much more complicated due to rapid volatility, limited historical information and constantly emerging new technologies that change the image of the market. The same situation is in case of young companies, which current, tangible assets are of little value, while the value of the company is concentrated in intangible assets and development options The paper presents general valuation indicators for Internet companies, which are a root point for a client division allowing a further model improvement. Based on the Internet companies evaluation indicators review, authors decided that for this proposal, the division between one-time (non-loyal) and repetitive (loyal) customers is of the greatest use. Following, the method of valuing companies based on valuation of Customer Lifetime Value was described. Considering different kinds of the Internet clients, a valuation model for one time and continuous relation was proposed. Authors suggest modifying traditional model by dividing the customers into two segments. The consumer's loyalty measured by behavioral outcome - the frequency of purchase is the criteria of segmentation. Such segmentation allows better extrapolation of company's value.