Technology I.P.O.s Since 1990 $30 bil. Amount raised Alibaba Facebook $10 bil. Uber Lyft Snap Twitter Google $1 bil. $100 mil. $10 mil. “Internet bubble” $1 mil. ’90 ’00 ’10 ’19 Amount raised Technology I.P.O.s Since 1990 $30,000,000,000 Alibaba Uber Facebook $10,000,000,000 Snap Infineon Tech. Agere Systems Lyft Twitter Google Pinterest $1,000,000,000 Zoom $100,000,000 $10,000,000 “Internet bubble” $1,000,000 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 Amount raised Technology I.P.O.s Since 1990 $30,000,000,000 Alibaba Facebook $10,000,000,000 Uber Snap Infineon Technologies Agere Systems Lyft Twitter Google Pinterest $1,000,000,000 Zoom $100,000,000 $10,000,000 “Internet bubble” $1,000,000 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 Note: Vertical scale is adjusted to orders of magnitude, making percentage differences comparable. · Source: Refinitiv

When Uber begins trading on Friday, it will cap one of the largest ever tech I.P.O.s and join a crowd of big-name start-ups making their stock market debuts this year.

Not since the dot-com boom have so many richly valued tech companies gone public in such short succession: Shares of Lyft and Pinterest are now trading, and Slack, WeWork and Palantir are expected to follow soon.

But this crop of tech companies is markedly different from those that came up during the late 1990s.

Many rode the rise of mobile connectivity and cloud computing in the last decade to multibillion-dollar valuations. They are more mature, having spent years as private companies building their businesses. But a number remain deeply unprofitable, and the time they spent in the private markets, increasing in size and value, has ultimately raised questions about where they go from here.

By staying private for longer, tech start-ups have been able to avoid public scrutiny

Year of company’s inception Year company went public ’00 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 Netscape Yahoo Amazon eBay TheGlobe.com 3 years avg. age before going public eToys Priceline Webvan Pets.com Netflix Google Salesforce Tesla Angie’s List Groupon LinkedIn Pandora Zynga Facebook 10 years avg. age before going public Twitter GoPro Box Etsy Square Coupa ForeScout Mulesoft Redfin Roku Snap DocuSign Domo 11 years avg. age before going public Dropbox Eventbrite Sonos Spotify Zscaler Zuora Going public this year Lyft PagerDuty Pinterest Uber Zoom ’95 ’00 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 Year company went public Year of company’s inception 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 Netscape Yahoo Amazon eBay TheGlobe.com eToys 3 years average age before going public Priceline Webvan Pets.com Netflix Google Salesforce Tesla Angie’s List Groupon LinkedIn Pandora Zynga Facebook 10 years average age before going public Twitter GoPro Box Etsy Square Coupa ForeScout Mulesoft Redfin Roku Snap DocuSign Domo Dropbox Eventbrite Sonos Spotify 11 years average age before going public Zscaler Zuora Lyft Going public this year PagerDuty Pinterest Uber Zoom 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 Year of company’s inception Year company went public 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 Netscape Yahoo Amazon eBay TheGlobe.com eToys 3 years average age before going public Priceline Webvan Pets.com Netflix Google Salesforce Tesla Angie’s List Groupon LinkedIn Pandora Zynga Facebook Twitter GoPro 10 years average age before going public Box Etsy Square Coupa ForeScout Mulesoft Redfin Roku Snap DocuSign Domo Dropbox Eventbrite Sonos Spotify 11 years average age before going public Zscaler Zuora Lyft Going public this year PagerDuty Pinterest Uber Zoom 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

When Netscape, Yahoo and Theglobe.com, a now-defunct online network of “virtual communities,” went public in the late 1990s, none had been around for more than three years. When Lyft began trading on the Nasdaq in late March, it had been in business for about seven, and it was young compared with others. Uber, PagerDuty and Pinterest have all been operating for at least a decade.

There are a number of explanations why companies are staying private for longer. Some point to increased regulation of public companies. Others note how record-low interest rates after the financial crisis pushed investors into private markets, increasing the amount of money available for funding rounds.

But by relying on venture capitalists and other investors to finance their operations, start-ups have had more runway to figure out sustainable business models while avoiding the public eye.

Today’s tech start-ups going public have built big businesses as private companies

Valuation Earliest valuation (seed/Series A) At time of I.P.O. $100 billion Uber Facebook Google Snap Lyft Twitter 10 Tesla Etsy 1 Amazon Netflix $100 million Snap Tesla Google 10 Facebook Lyft Amazon Uber Etsy Netflix Yahoo 1 Twitter $100 thousand ’95 ’00 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 Valuation Earliest valuation (seed/Series A) At time of I.P.O. $100 billion Uber Facebook Spotify Google Lyft Snap Twitter 10 Zynga GoPro Tesla Etsy 1 eBay Amazon GoPro Netflix Yahoo $100 million Snap Tesla Zynga Spotify 10 eBay Google Facebook Lyft Amazon Uber Etsy Netflix Yahoo 1 Twitter $100 thousand ’95 ’00 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 Valuation Earliest valuation (seed/Series A) At time of I.P.O. $100 billion Uber Facebook Spotify Google Lyft Snap Twitter 10 Zynga GoPro Etsy Tesla 1 eBay Amazon GoPro Yahoo Netflix $100 million Snap Tesla Zynga Spotify 10 eBay Google Facebook Lyft Amazon Uber Etsy Netflix Yahoo 1 Twitter $100 thousand ’95 ’00 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20 Note: Vertical scale is adjusted to orders of magnitude, making percentage differences comparable. · Sources: Dealogic; EquityZen

Not surprisingly, the start-ups in this I.P.O. wave are more valuable.

The average stock market valuation of the venture capital-backed tech companies going public in the United States this year is $9.6 billion, according to CB Insights, a company that tracks start-ups. Their combined value could exceed $150 billion by year’s end.

Lyft, which raised about $5 billion, went public with a valuation above $20 billion. Investors handed Uber even more — about $15 billion in all — and the company was valued at more than $82 billion when it priced its public offering on Thursday.

Amazon and Yahoo, by contrast, were worth less than $500 million at the time of their I.P.O.s.

Much of the start-ups’ growth may be behind them

1995-2004 I.P.O.s $2 bil. 6 10 +500% +1,500 Netscape Yahoo Priceline Revenue eToys Amazon 1 year Pets.com Revenue growth leading Webvan up to I.P.O. eBay 1 year Change from the year before I.P.O. to the year after TheGlobe.com after I.P.O. Netflix Salesforce Google 2010-19 I.P.O.s Snap LinkedIn Pandora Mulesoft GoPro Zuora DocuSign Etsy Facebook Dropbox Groupon Twitter Zscaler Domo Coupa Spotify Redfin Roku Angie's List Eventbrite Box Zynga Square ForeScout Sonos Tesla Lyft PagerDuty Pinterest Uber Zoom $2 bil. 6 10 +500% +1,500 1995-2004 I.P.O.s 0 $2 bil. 4 6 8 10 12 0 +500% +1,000 +1,500 +2,000 Netscape Yahoo Priceline eToys Amazon Revenue Revenue growth Pets.com Change from the year before I.P.O. to the year after 1 year leading up to I.P.O. Webvan 1 year after I.P.O. eBay TheGlobe.com Netflix Salesforce Google 2010-19 I.P.O.s Snap LinkedIn Pandora Mulesoft GoPro Zuora DocuSign Etsy Facebook Dropbox Groupon Twitter Zscaler Domo Coupa Spotify Redfin Roku Angie's List Eventbrite Box Zynga Square ForeScout Sonos Tesla Lyft PagerDuty Pinterest Uber Zoom 0 $2 bil. 4 6 8 10 12 0 +500% +1,000 +1,500 +2,000 Source: EquityZen

Investors have long made bets on companies that promise to revolutionize how people shop, travel and consume media. Two decades ago, many ignored the relative youth and financial outlook of the start-ups they were backing. For some, the bets paid off: Amazon, eBay and Google trace their roots to the dot-com boom. But the period also produced many high-profile flops like Webvan and Pets.com.

Unlike those busts, highly valued tech companies today are more established, and many of them are drawing billions in revenue. Still, not all seem like sure bets.

Sales growth for several of the start-ups appears to be slowing. Last year, for example, Uber’s revenue rose 42 percent from the year before; in 2017, revenue more than doubled from 2016.

By comparison, Netscape, Amazon, eBay and Yahoo combined generated less than $100 million in revenue when they went public. But they were on the upswing, and in the three years after their I.P.O.s, their revenues surged by more than 10 times.

Slowing revenue growth doesn’t necessarily mean investors who buy in at the I.P.O. price will miss out on big gains. Some investors worried about Facebook’s slowing revenue growth when it went public in May 2012. But three years after the debut, its revenue had tripled and its share price had more than doubled.

But the slowing growth of this new generation has raised questions about whether some of them will become profitable soon.

Profitability 12 months of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization leading up to each company’s I.P.O. 0 +2 –$2 billion –1 +1 Netscape ’95 Yahoo ’96 Amazon ’97 TheGlobe.com ’98 eBay Priceline Webvan ’99 eToys Pets.com ’00 Netflix ’02 Salesforce ’04 Google Tesla Groupon Angie's List ’10 Pandora LinkedIn Zynga Facebook ’11 Twitter ’12 GoPro ’13 Box Square ’15 Etsy Coupa ’16 Snap ForeScout Mulesoft ’17 Roku Redfin Spotify Domo Zuora DocuSign ’18 Zscaler Eventbrite Sonos Dropbox Uber Lyft ’19 Pinterest PagerDuty Zoom Profitability + $2.0 billion 12 months of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization leading up to each company’s I.P.O. + 1.5 + 1.0 + 0.5 0 – 0.5 – 1.0 – 1.5 – 2.0 ’95 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’04 ’10 ’11 ’13 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 ’96 ’02 ’12 – 2.5 Yahoo Netscape Amazon TheGlobe.com eBay Priceline Webvan eToys Pets.com Netflix Salesforce Google Tesla Groupon Angie's List Pandora LinkedIn Zynga Facebook Twitter GoPro Box Square Etsy Coupa Snap ForeScout Roku Redfin Spotify Domo Zuora DocuSign Zscaler Eventbrite Sonos Dropbox Uber Lyft Pinterest PagerDuty Zoom Mulesoft Profitability + $2.0 billion + 1.5 12 months of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization leading up to each company’s I.P.O. + 1.0 + 0.5 0 – 0.5 – 1.0 – 1.5 – 2.0 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’02 ’04 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 – 2.5 Yahoo Netscape TheGlobe.com Pets.com Amazon Priceline Webvan eToys Salesforce Pandora eBay Netflix Google Tesla Groupon Angie's List LinkedIn Zynga Facebook Twitter GoPro Box Square Etsy Coupa ForeScout Mulesoft Roku Redfin Domo Eventbrite Sonos Snap Spotify DocuSign Zscaler Uber Zoom Zuora Dropbox Lyft Pinterest PagerDuty Source: EquityZen

Being unprofitable is hardly a new phenomenon. Start-ups have often lost money as they go public, but the losses by some in the current group are particularly steep. Lyft lost nearly $1 billion last year, among the largest by a company in the year before it went public. And Lyft’s loss is not the largest of those planning I.P.O.s. WeWork lost $1.9 billion last year, and Uber lost $1.1 billion in the first quarter alone.

Today, regardless of their profitability and with less need to raise cash, many of these companies are going public largely to provide their founders, early investors and employees an opportunity to cash in at what are already very rich valuations.