Have you ever hesitated before clicking “buy” on a website you’d never heard of? That tiny moment of doubt is worth billions. One company has turned that hesitation into a thriving business, and most UK investors still haven’t noticed.
I’ve been watching the online review space for years, and something fascinating is happening right now. While everyone obsesses over the usual suspects in tech, a quieter but incredibly sticky business is building what feels like an unassailable position in digital commerce.
The Hidden Infrastructure of Online Shopping
Every time you see those little stars next to a product or a “verified purchase” badge, someone is making money from your trust. In many cases, that someone is a company listed right here on the London Stock Exchange, trading under a ticker most private investors have never typed into their broker.
The business started with a simple observation: people hate being ripped off online. A young entrepreneur in Denmark spotted his parents struggling to decide which websites were legitimate. Fast-forward almost two decades and that light-bulb moment has evolved into a global platform hosting hundreds of millions of customer reviews.
How the Money Actually Works
Here’s the part that still surprises people when I explain it over coffee. The platform is completely free for consumers. You and I can leave reviews forever without paying a penny. The revenue comes almost entirely from the businesses that want to look good.
It’s classic freemium done right. Anyone can claim their profile for nothing, but the moment they want to respond to reviews, showcase their score prominently, or dig into analytics, the credit card comes out.
- Free tier → basic presence (most small businesses stop here)
- Premium plans → verified badges, rich snippets, marketing tools
- Advanced tiers → competitor benchmarking and predictive scoring
- Enterprise → full API access, custom dashboards, dedicated support
What’s beautiful about this ladder is that companies rarely go backwards. Once they taste the data, they’re hooked. Recent numbers show the average customer lifetime value keeps climbing while churn stays remarkably low for software.
The Most Underrated Moat in Tech
People talk about network effects in social media, but reviews have something even stronger: regulatory gravity. Governments worldwide are cracking down on fake feedback. When authorities look for a gold standard of authenticity, they increasingly point to independent platforms rather than letting retailers mark their own homework.
“A strong independent rating has become table stakes for any serious online seller.”
– E-commerce operations director, FTSE 250 retailer
This isn’t just marketing fluff. I’ve spoken to several mid-sized retailers who told me they literally cannot advertise on major platforms anymore without hitting minimum review thresholds. That’s real pricing power.
And the bigger the platform gets, the harder it becomes to fake your way to the top. The fraud detection budget runs into tens of millions annually – money smaller competitors simply cannot match.
Where the Growth Is Coming From
For years the story was simple: add more businesses, collect more reviews, sell more subscriptions. That land-and-expand motion still works beautifully, but management has shifted focus to something far more lucrative – moving existing customers up the value chain.
The latest half-year figures showed average revenue per customer jumping 17%. That’s not from inflation (though gentle price rises help); it’s from companies willingly paying thousands per month for insights they didn’t even know they needed two years ago.
Perhaps the most exciting development is the new data product layer. With hundreds of millions of verified reviews, the company sits on what might be the world’s richest repository of real consumer sentiment. Turning that into sellable business intelligence could open entirely new markets – think credit risk assessment, supply-chain optimisation, even predictive demand modelling.
The Competitive Landscape (Or Lack Thereof)
Everyone immediately thinks of the 800-pound gorilla with the colourful maps when reviews are mentioned. Fair enough – it dominates local discovery. But here’s what most miss: businesses increasingly want to own their reputation rather than rent it from a search giant that could change the algorithm tomorrow.
Independence matters. Neutrality matters. Being able to display your score anywhere – not just inside one ecosystem – matters. In Europe especially, this positioning has created what feels like a quasi-monopoly for general e-commerce reviews.
Vertical players exist (hotels, restaurants, tradespeople), but crossing categories is incredibly hard. The trust doesn’t transfer. A five-star plumbing review doesn’t make me trust your electronics store.
Valuation: Expensive or Reasonable?
At roughly three times forward sales, the stock isn’t screaming cheap compared to battered UK software names. But context matters.
| Metric | Company | US Peer Avg |
| Revenue growth | Mid-teens | 30%+ |
| Rule of 40 score | ~35 | ~50 |
| EV/Sales | 3.0x | 8-12x |
Looked at through an American lens – where similar quality SaaS routinely trades at eight or ten times sales – the shares start to look strangely reasonable. Especially when you factor in the improving margin profile and virtually debt-free balance sheet.
The market is pricing in continued mid-teens growth and gradual margin expansion to the mid-30s. If the data products take off or enterprise adoption accelerates further, those assumptions could prove conservative.
Risks You Can’t Ignore
No investment is risk-free, and this one has its share.
- AI-generated reviews are getting scarily good. Detection costs will keep rising.
- Economic sensitivity – discretionary online spending slows in recessions, and marketing budgets get cut.
- Platform risk – changes in how Google or Amazon display third-party reviews could hurt.
- Profitability timeline – still burning modest cash while investing in growth.
That said, many of these risks are already well understood and arguably priced in. The business has proven remarkably resilient through previous downturns.
Final Thoughts
We’re still in the relatively early innings of digital commerce reaching its full potential. As more of the world shifts online – particularly in emerging markets – the need for trusted verification layers only grows.
In my view, few companies sit as squarely in that trend as this one. It’s not the flashiest stock in the tech sector, and it never will be. But sometimes the best investments are the ones that solve boring, important problems profitably.
For anyone looking for exposure to the continued growth of e-commerce without betting everything on the usual mega-caps, this quiet Danish success story deserves a place on the watchlist. The combination of network effects, regulatory tailwinds, and a clear path to higher profitability makes for a compelling long-term story.
Whether it’s a core holding tomorrow depends on execution, but the foundation looks stronger than most appreciate. In an internet increasingly drowning in spin and manipulation, genuine trust isn’t just valuable – it’s priceless.
This article contains the author’s personal opinions and should not be considered financial advice. All investing carries risk of loss.
