flâneur

Why Some Platforms Thrive and Others Don’t

hbr.org · 136 words · saved by 1 readers

In the digital economy, scale is no guarantee of continued success. After all, the same factors that help an online platform expand quickly—such as the low cost of adding new customers—work for challengers too. What, then, allows platforms to fight off rivals and grow profits? Their ability to manage five aspects of the networks they’re embedded in: network effects, in which users attract more users clustering, or fragmentation into many local markets the risk of disintermediation, wherein users bypass a hub and connect directly vulnerability to multi-homing, which happens when users form ties with two or more competing platforms network bridging, which allows platforms to leverage users and data from one network in another network When entrepreneurs are evaluating a digital platform business, they should look at these dynamics—and the feasibility of improving them—to get a more realistic picture of its long-term prospects.

Harvard Business Review Logo What Alibaba, Tencent, and Uber teach us about networks that flourish. The five characteristics that make the difference. by Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti Shout In the digital economy, scale is no guarantee of continued success. After all, the same factors that help an online platform expand quickly—such as the low cost of adding new In 2016, Didi became the world’s largest ride-sharing company, reaching 25 million trips a day in China and surpassing the combined daily trips of all other ride-sharing companies across the globe. It had arrived at this milestone…

saved by

related reading