How do you evaluate the value of your source code? - iOS AppsOnline
One can't help but talk about the recent acquisitions of apps by big companies when talking about source code. Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion left many with gaping mouths and scratching it's head about why the social networking giant would pay such a sum of money to buy the app.
Well, a more recent development would offer a better explanation to the acquisition. WhatsApp's userbase has surpassed 500 million users by now and is only going to get bigger and bigger. Data shows that on a single day, users share millions of media files across the app, especially in the BRIC countries(Brazil, Russia, India and China). As a company whose hole strategy revolves around the amount of users that they have, Facebook might actually have done the right thing for it's business.
But for developers all around the world, it does bring up a good question. How do you set a price on your source code?
Do you judge on the basis of the demand for the code? Do you go with the baseline estimates that depend upon the hourly workrates? Do you include the various types of licenses? Do you judge on the basis of the number of users that are current? Or do you follow some other formula to set a value?
The answer is that it depends on a lot of aspects. But the best way is to negotiate it with the person/company that wants to buy source code from you. It is a good thing for you to not name a number first, but wait for the buyer to give you a figure that they think is best fit for the product. The price that they offer is going to the maximum that they are willing to buy source code for and it should be better than the least amount of money that you are expecting for it.
The ideal thing to do is here is, and it may seem obvious, to speak to the client about their needs. Why are they looking to make this purchase? What are their needs?
If they're someone who are looking to just buy source code from you so they can then resell it after flipping it for say $700, then you aren't going to make anything greater than that amount. Now, you have the option of take it or leave it.
But one thing that you should take absolute caution about is the fine print. Talk to them clearly about the what they are and aren't allowed to do with the source code and how they can use it, for example, reskin indefinite times but fully or partially? What services you're liable to offer after the sales and 'til what period of time. Plus what you, the developer is allowed to do with the code after sales. If you're allowed to use it or make any modifications or not etc.
