A platform is a business model that creates value not by producing its own products but by facilitating exchange between different groups. Unlike linear business models that pass value along a chain from supplier to manufacturer to customer, platforms orchestrate a network in which participants interact directly with each other. The platform typically does not own the goods being traded.
Uber owns no vehicles, Airbnb no properties, Amazon Marketplace no third-party goods. Yet these companies are among the most valuable in the world because they scale through network effects: every additional participant makes the platform more valuable for all others. The three critical success factors are the Core Interaction (which central exchange is enabled?), Governance (what rules apply on the platform?), and Network Effects (how does value grow with user numbers?).
The concept was systematically described by Parker, Van Alstyne, and Choudary in Platform Revolution (2016). Building a platform requires solving the chicken-and-egg problem, as both sides must be built simultaneously.
Apply methods, don't just know them. View trainings and workshops
