#secondary-markets

#secondary-markets

A quiet but significant shift is underway in digital commerce. For decades, companies that create digital products-whether tickets, game items, or software-have missed out on a massive revenue stream: They only make money when they sell a product for the first time or when they charge a recurring subscription. If a customer later resells the product, the company gets nothing; or if a product becomes more valuable over time, that additional value is captured by resellers and not the company that built it.

African entrepreneurs can build world-class businesses, but investors hesitate because they cannot see how or when they will get their money back. Initial public offerings (IPOs) remain extremely rare, and most exits take the form of trade sales often unpredictable and slow to clear. Our stock exchanges offer little comfort either with liquidity outside the largest firms still limited. Start-ups here can remain start-ups for decades with no clear path to maturity.