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.

中文翻译：

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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非常重要，但对于投资者如何评价平台及其在私人或公开市场中的商业模式范围，却鲜有系统或定量分析。本文试图通过分析独角兽估值如何受到“平台性”（公司至少纳入多边商业模式的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。我们调查了截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日存在的 959 家独角兽公司（估值 10 亿美元或以上的私营公司），以评估投资者是否对世界不同地区的平台业务公司给予更高的估值，而不是只提供“独立”业务产品或服务。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 (APAC) 为 39%。地域差异可能是由于投资者对美国平台业务的兴趣更大，以及北美独角兽平台更常见的其他特征。一半以上的独角兽样本和一半以上的平台独角兽源自北美。我们还发现，投资者为“创新平台”（这些平台通过应用程序编程接口实现第三方互补创新）支付的费用比“交易平台”（这些平台将两个市场方面结合在一起，如产品或服务市场、金融交易所或社交媒体和消息网站）。 具有产生和利用全球网络效应潜力的平台独角兽的估值也比仅限于非全球网络效应的平台高出约 26%。