The platform revolution
Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2024 3:40 am
The dark side of platforms
Tomorrow at 12: discover the best Christmas commercials of 2024 in the free webinar. Register
The world is saturated with platforms. You order an exotic meal via Thuisbezorgd, book someone's apartment for a city trip via Airbnb, arrange a car with SnappCar and find a reliable cleaner at Helpling. The most special and everyday things are arranged with platforms. Unprecedented success stories have shaken up the more traditional pipeline companies and governments .
The ease with which you can order a new washing machine with two clicks and have it running at your home the next day, makes you almost forget that there is a company and a network of partners behind it. Can the platform train continue unscathed for much longer? Or will they be destroyed by their own success, the struggle with governments, or the uprising of the little man ?
Martijn Arets discusses this and more in his denmark telegram data book 'Platform Revolution' (affiliate). He spent years doing research, looking behind the scenes at various large and small platform companies, participating in think tanks and trying out countless platforms himself as a user. In the book he shares his findings, discusses cases and offers insights for entrepreneurs and governments. With passion. And a critical note. Because fortunately the book is not a list of well-known examples, a plea for why platforms rule the world, or why you should immediately invent the Uber for [insert brilliant idea] yourself. That story has been told too often by now. With his extensive explanation of the platform economy, Arets highlights both the positive and the somewhat more negative aspects of platforms.
Dark side
If you break it down, platforms are two-sided marketplaces. On one side the suppliers and on the other side the buyers. The platform facilitates the transaction as a market master. Together they maintain demand, supply and the balance. Platforms reduce costs and offer many advantages for both companies and consumers. But platforms also have a dark side. In the book Arets addresses a number of issues.
Learning at the expense of the users
Platforms can experiment at the expense of and to the detriment of the user. They often have so many participants – after all, they live on the economy of scale – that they can afford to experiment. They can also use the data, experience and reputation of suppliers and buyers to profit from this themselves. Like Deliveroo, which collects data and customers via affiliated restaurants, and then launches a delivery-only model itself based on this preference data. The restaurants are left behind. Netflix can also use the data and demand patterns to produce films and series that exactly match the wishes of the users.
Platforms are market masters and providers
A topic that seems to be getting more and more attention in the media is the growing power of mega platforms, the Apples and Googles of this world. These companies can exert enormous influence with their billion-dollar customer base and alarming amount of (personal) data. The Big 5 (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook) are increasingly accused of (among other things) unfair competition. For example, by giving priority to their own products and services within their platforms. A well-known example is the fight between Spotify and Apple. Spotify believes that the music streaming app is being discriminated against in the Apple App Store, so that Apple's own music streaming service, Apple Music, is found and downloaded earlier.
Tomorrow at 12: discover the best Christmas commercials of 2024 in the free webinar. Register
The world is saturated with platforms. You order an exotic meal via Thuisbezorgd, book someone's apartment for a city trip via Airbnb, arrange a car with SnappCar and find a reliable cleaner at Helpling. The most special and everyday things are arranged with platforms. Unprecedented success stories have shaken up the more traditional pipeline companies and governments .
The ease with which you can order a new washing machine with two clicks and have it running at your home the next day, makes you almost forget that there is a company and a network of partners behind it. Can the platform train continue unscathed for much longer? Or will they be destroyed by their own success, the struggle with governments, or the uprising of the little man ?
Martijn Arets discusses this and more in his denmark telegram data book 'Platform Revolution' (affiliate). He spent years doing research, looking behind the scenes at various large and small platform companies, participating in think tanks and trying out countless platforms himself as a user. In the book he shares his findings, discusses cases and offers insights for entrepreneurs and governments. With passion. And a critical note. Because fortunately the book is not a list of well-known examples, a plea for why platforms rule the world, or why you should immediately invent the Uber for [insert brilliant idea] yourself. That story has been told too often by now. With his extensive explanation of the platform economy, Arets highlights both the positive and the somewhat more negative aspects of platforms.
Dark side
If you break it down, platforms are two-sided marketplaces. On one side the suppliers and on the other side the buyers. The platform facilitates the transaction as a market master. Together they maintain demand, supply and the balance. Platforms reduce costs and offer many advantages for both companies and consumers. But platforms also have a dark side. In the book Arets addresses a number of issues.
Learning at the expense of the users
Platforms can experiment at the expense of and to the detriment of the user. They often have so many participants – after all, they live on the economy of scale – that they can afford to experiment. They can also use the data, experience and reputation of suppliers and buyers to profit from this themselves. Like Deliveroo, which collects data and customers via affiliated restaurants, and then launches a delivery-only model itself based on this preference data. The restaurants are left behind. Netflix can also use the data and demand patterns to produce films and series that exactly match the wishes of the users.
Platforms are market masters and providers
A topic that seems to be getting more and more attention in the media is the growing power of mega platforms, the Apples and Googles of this world. These companies can exert enormous influence with their billion-dollar customer base and alarming amount of (personal) data. The Big 5 (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook) are increasingly accused of (among other things) unfair competition. For example, by giving priority to their own products and services within their platforms. A well-known example is the fight between Spotify and Apple. Spotify believes that the music streaming app is being discriminated against in the Apple App Store, so that Apple's own music streaming service, Apple Music, is found and downloaded earlier.