Platforms are essential to business model innovation in all companies today, from startups to tech giants and large enterprises. Platform Hunt is an open initiative turning the art of building a platform into science.
We studied 160+ platform businesses and discovered 8 distinct types of platform business models. These 8 platform types have different platform mechanics, including how they create network effects, types of players and their interactions, approaches to solving the “chicken and egg” problem, openness, growth dynamics, subsidies, competitive strategies and monetisation methods.
Here is a summary of the 8 platform business models together with examples of platforms for each of the platform types. See Platform-Hunt.com for more details.
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Almost every software entrepreneur nowadays builds some kind of a ‘platform’. Yet very few will confidently answer a seemingly simple, but very important question: What kind of platform do you build?
All platforms are not created equal. Google Search, Facebook, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Marketplace, Android, Uber, AirBnB, Waze, WeWork, Twilio and even Bitcoin are all platforms. At the same time, these platforms are very different in how they create network effects, interactions they enable, approaches to solving “chicken and egg” problems (do you build the demand side first or the supply side?), …
Platforms disrupt industry after industry: Google disrupts advertising, Facebook disrupts telecom, Amazon disrupts retail, Apple disrupts music (again), Android disrupts consumer electronics, AirBnB disrupts hotels, Uber disrupts transportation, Zenefits disrupts insurance, Munchery disrupts restaurants, FreightOS disrupts shipping, Trucker Path disrupts long-haul trucking, WeWork disrupts office real-estate business…
But platforms are not created equal. To really understand how platforms work, you have to understand how platforms are different. Facebook is different from Google Search, Amazon Marketplace is different Amazon Web Services, Apple App Store is different from Uber, AirBnB is different from Waze. …
