President Clinton says “no new Internet taxes” and the value of most
Internet stocks broke new ceilings for highs. This translated into a value
per user in our latest WEBDEX tally of $66.02 on average, while Yahoo! led
the eyeball and wallet race at $115.62 per user.
The disparity between the top and bottom illustrates the perceived value
gap between firms that essentially deliver many of the same things. Yet so
does TV. It’s safe to say Super Bowl Sunday commands a higher value than
Monday Night Football. Same game, different “context.”
We think in the Internet space that “context” may become increasingly
important as new users come on for the first time and look for a place to
call “home.” With 1% of the world on the Web there’s 99% to go and more and
more innovation to come.
So while we see firms today commanding what look like ridiculous values per
page, users should keep in mind that they may indeed be ridiculous in some
cases if these companies can’t fulfill the pent up expectations Wall Street
asks of them.
WEBDEX, Value Per User & Page View
Web Property | January | Market cap | Value | Average Daily | Value Per |
Web Brand | Users | or est. PMV * | Per | Page Views | Page View |
(sorted by value per user) | (millions) | (millions) | User | (millions) | |
Yahoo | 26.7 | $ 3,087 | $ 115.62 | 65 | $ 47.49 |
AOL.com* | 11.2 | $ 1,000 | $ 89.29 | 30 | $ 33.33 |
MSN.com | 6.3 | $ 500 | $ 79.37 | 22 | $ 22.73 |
Lycos-Tripod | 7.8 | $ 606 | $ 77.71 | 18 | $ 33.67 |
Microsoft.com* | 15.6 | $ 1,000 | $ 64.10 | 35 | $ 28.57 |
Excite | 12.5 | $ 777 | $ 62.18 | 27 | $ 28.79 |
Infoseek | 11.6 | $ 479 | $ 41.29 | 13 | $ 38.32 |
AltaVista* | 6.7 | $ 250 | $ 37.31 | 18 | $ 13.89 |
Netscape.com* | 20.7 | $ 625 | $ 30.19 | 35 | $ 17.86 |
GeoCities* | 10.4 | $ 225 | $ 21.63 | 29 | $ 7.76 |
TOTAL | 130 | $ 8,549 | $ 66.02 | $ 292 | $ 272.41 |
AVERAGE | 13 | $ 855 | $ 66.02 | $ 29 | $ 27.24 |
Users: Relevant Knowledge; Page Views: Company reports or Media Metrix | |||||
MarCap on 03.04.98; PMV=estimated private market value | |||||
WEBDEX is a creation of Mecklermedia |
The most popular TV show in 1972 was “Happy Days.” “Star Wars” was the
leading box office hit, back in 1976. At one time ABC, CBS, NBC all have been
number one in the broadcast network war.
Similarly, in the new Web network era, we expect that today’s number one
could be tomorrow’s number two or three, and vice versa. Outsiders could
become number one. AOL did it in online services, coming from third to
first. Loyalty on the Web is one click away and our analytical sense tells
us values may be just as volatile.