The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power
This talk will summarize some key findings from a new book by Michael A. Cusumano, Annabelle Gawer, and David B. Yoffie. We will focus on the key features associated with digital platforms – businesses that connect two or more market sides, with supply or demand driven at least in part by network effects. Platform companies are now the most valuable companies in the world and the first trillion-dollar businesses. The talk will explain how digital platforms differ from conventional product or service businesses, and why some markets produce spectacular winner-take-all-or-most outcomes while others result in spectacular financial losses.