Platform in Chilecon Valley

When I think of platform I think of:

and the pain it will definitely cause to both my wallet and my feet. It can also damage my pride if I fall in public which is highly probable.

And maybe I thought of all that since I have been schooled in Louboutin’s homeland, France and “Platform” comes from mid 16th century French (Plateforme) meaning ‘ground plan,’ literally ‘flat shape.’[1]

There are business definitions of a platform and tech definition of platforms.

But let’s start with the flat mid-century definition of a ground plan, in the digital world that we will focus on, a platform is a group of technologies that are used to build processes and/or applications layers on top of them[2].

At a computer level, the platform is the actual hardware and the operating system. Software applications were then developed for the platform you will be using to make your life easier.

People now think of it as obvious, but there was a time that hardware and software were two very distant lands. What seems now to be the digital middle ages, I was in an elite school in Paris that was at the edge of technology and the syllabus of our computer science classes was learning Basic, Cobol and Pascal (oups I just gave away how old I am!). Because everyone believed that these would be necessary tools for the future.

Nowadays a digital platform refers to the software or hardware of a site. Amazon is a digital platform. Facebook is a digital platform. These modern platforms are all about making data available for external application development. So the benefits of a platform are that, through integration and scale, it creates a system whereby through the exchange of services there is a reduction of costs.

What was not initially intended as such is that platforms have become the founding layer of an ecosystem that can be leveraged.

It is this leverage that raises a lot of questions in Europe particularly[3] and the power imbalances that a platform creates, especially in terms of economic dynamics it fosters through access and communication services.

A good example of that is Pinterest. Initially the program was thought of as a social network where you would pin pictures of images that you like on the internet or even yours as to create mood boards. I had heard of it but did not feel the need to create a mood board. I only joined Pinterest in 2012, and I was told by my sister that it was an interesting creative resource. I also signed up easily as 1. contrary to other social network I did not have to include any details and 2. I felt that I got a lot out of it.

There is an addictive side to the process where you can be on the other side of the world see what people come up with and replicate/ duplicate without the necessary external conditions.

Now, it has also turned into an outlet for business ventures whereby after being “pinned” or commented and contacted to provide whatever you were posting, people have now started setting up Etsy shops (another platform) to sell their creations. To the point that Pinterest introduced a business account and a buy button[4].

Platforms have also been qualified as Bazaar (even before AliBaba) as the central role that platforms play is helping boosting trade and economic activity levels, pairing through mass user function potential buyers with products or service offerings.

Authorities and regulatory bodies are concerned with this imbalance of power since the intrinsic position as a platform allows the “platform provider” to gather a large amount of data on the users and their commercial relationship.

A number of ethical questions are being raised, in terms of usage, security, data usage, and storage transparency on the consumer side but also on the buyer side given the quasi-monopolistic nature of the platforms.

In terms of balance of power, most users are digitally illiterate when it comes to what rights they are actually giving up to access a service on the app store for example[5].

To allow everyone to benefit from platforms whilst making sure that rules are abided by, in this very fast evolving sphere, there have been discussions that Governments should probably be developing digital literacy policies.

Governments are trying to build platforms, in an effort to show an example of a hybrid platform, I thought of Chile and the initiative it has created called Start-up Chile, that I discovered during an official trip to Chile as part of the Algerian delegation representative of the Ministry of Trade.

Start-Up Chile is a program of the Chilean Government created in 2010, to attract early stage high-potential entrepreneurs from around the world “to bootstrap their startups in Chile”, using it as a platform to go global and inspiring Chileans to become global entrepreneurs. The end-goal of the program is to convert Chile into the definitive innovation and entrepreneurial hub of Latin America.

Through a worldwide open application process, and after selection, Start-Up Chile covers up to 90% of the project’s budget which includes operational expenses, investments, and human resources. The idea was that entrepreneurs would come to the country to set-up their company for at least 6 months, get funding equity free. By living in the country, part of that funding would be re-injected in the Chilean economy whilst boosting entrepreneurship, innovation and give back to the Chilean society through a social impact program increasing digital literacy in the country to aim for local innovation and entrepreneurship.

Since Chile is so far from a number of HUBs the idea of bringing the world to Chile instead is an interesting approach, building on the economic and political stability in the region, and advertising to the world cheaper costs of living and labor in Santiago when compared to more established entrepreneurial hubs.

Initially, the launching entrepreneur did not have any obligation to stay in the country but through iteration and being criticized for milking the country, now Start-up Chile set an obligation to stay for a certain number of year but there has also created a follow-up program, where there are financial incentives to expand in Chile, for entrepreneurs to grow their business.

Of course as often in Government, the program is not perfect but the fact that Start-Up Chile would be a platform to help diversify the economy and convert Chile into Chilecon Valley, is an interesting example of how countries apprehend the digital world.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=platform+definition&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

[2] (“What Is Platform? — Definition from Techopedia” 2016)

[3] ( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/technology/google-european-union-antitrust-charges.html)

[4] (22, 2012, and Pm 2016)

[5] https://tosdr.org