Internet economy: Payment and audio lure investors

Hamburg/Munich, 19 July 2013. Internet technologies are currently the most rewarding investments in the online space. This can be concluded from the results of a recent study by SCHICKLER Consulting. The consulting firm has examined 700 transactions undertaken by the "insiders of the internet", twelve leading financial investors, between 2010 and 2012. 39 percent of these transactions were related to internet technologies. 

Additionally, the analysis reveals further patterns. In the subcategories, payment solutions, audio content and e-learning are currently experiencing the largest increases. In contrast, the stars of recent years have faded.

For the analysis, the transactions were grouped into six clusters with subcategories. The biggest investment cluster is "internet technologies": companies that create enabling technologies for the digital economy. These include basic technologies/software, cloud services and cloud solutions, security, data storage and payment solutions.

They continue to gain in importance: Among the five categories with the largest increases, three are attributable to internet technologies: payment solutions (125%), security (97%), and cloud services and solutions (61%), followed by the clusters transactions, networking, content, reach marketing and outernet. The latter only received 6 percent of total investments in 2012.

The following subcategories have suffered the most: couponing (-91%), technology and terminal equipment development (-86%) and outernet services (-80%). Classic e-commerce, which currently provides for the largest sales of the digital economy by far, has also lost. Investors tend to favour mobile and social shopping as well as niche sites for specific audiences.

The overall analysis shows that there is still strong interest in internet business models. The twelve financial investors considered for the study are involved in this field with more than 250 transactions per year. The average volume per transaction of the last two years is steadily around 20 million dollars, adjusted for the mega-transactions of 2011.

The report is currently available in German only.
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