#IPO Learning 7: Accounting for online companies needs to evolve

•Digital companies have to expense all their customer acquisition costs

•Offline companies can depreciate store setup expenses over many years

•Accounting policies have not evolved to keep pace with this industry

•Companies have to figure out how to re-write their accounts

•Customers are the long-term assets in these businesses

•Value investing Buffet style has to evolve to understand digital businesses