Startups are a rising trend among entrepreneurs regardless of age, educational background, and gender. However, given the rapid increase in the number of newly established startups, the percent of businesses that fail is not insignificant. One of the many reasons why startups fail is the difficulty of identifying a clear value proposition from the customer’s perspective. This should be carefully considered. Hence, this research aims to analyze the information on Internet startup value propositions from the customer’s perspective, during the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, to observe changing trends of value propositions and predict their development in the next decade as a reference for future startups. Overall, value propositions from the customer’s perspective have gradually shifted over the last three decades. Several value propositions in particular, including privacy protection, security services, and legitimacy in trust, are receiving increasingly more attention from customers. From 2020 onwards, community and emotion will maintained sustainably and will continue to develop strongly. Above all, the value imparted by privacy protection and security services will remain a prime concern among the new generation of Internet startups.

Introduction

As technology develops further and the Internet expands, startups, Internet startups in particular, are developing at a remarkable rate, with the number of new startups increasing every year. According to Dr. Reynolds from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), around 300 million people worldwide are trying to start about 150 million businesses, of which one third will be launched. This means that around 50 million new startups are established each year, 137,000 per day on average. According to the 2016–۲۰۱۷ GEM report, entrepreneurship and startups are developing so rapidly because entrepreneurship is considered a good career choice. Not only do entrepreneurs who succeed acquire high social status, the media is also paying much attention to entrepreneurship, contributing to the growing interest in starting a business among those aged 18–۶۴ all over the world. However, the percent of startups that fail is considerable, reportedly almost equal to the percentage of startups established. Of the many reasons why earlystage startups fail, the most common (accounting for 42% of failures) is a lack of market need for the products or services. Another reason (accounting for 14% of failures) is customer ignorance (CB Insights report). Customers clearly play a vital role in deciding the success or failure of a business. The first and most important task of an entrepreneur starting a business could be to analyze market demand to ensure that the startup will provide the most suitable products or services. After a successful establishment, it is then necessary to remain strong in the competitive market. To ensure customer loyalty, each startup must consider the value it can offer customers in various forms, and how to develop and improve upon this value.