Where operating history is captured, structured, and legally owned, it compounds. Where it is licensed, it rents.
Data is described as an asset far more often than it is treated as one. The test is simple: is it captured consistently, is it structured well enough to be used, and does the company own the right to use it for the purpose it intends.
Failing any one of those tests removes the advantage. Inconsistent capture produces a record that cannot be trusted. Poor structure produces a cost of extraction that exceeds the value. Unclear rights produce a liability that surfaces at the worst moment, usually during diligence.
Where all three hold, the position strengthens with time and is genuinely difficult for a competitor to replicate, because the missing input is not capital but years of operation.
We treat data rights as a diligence item of the same weight as title on a property. It is either owned or it is not, and the answer changes the valuation.