The Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy -- and How to Make Them Work for You

1© 2017 Parker & Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com
Barcelona, Spain • October 29-31, 2016
© 2017 Parker & Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com
Marshall Van Alstyne
Boston University
mva@bu.edu
InfoEcon@twitter.com
Platform Shift: How New Biz
Models Are Changing the Shape
of Industry
Seth Benzell
Guillermo Lagarda
Geoffrey Parker

2© 2017 Parker, Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com
@InfoEcon
Firm Year Empl. Mkt Cap
BMW1916 116,000 $55B
Uber 2009 7,000 $60B
Marriott 1927 200,000 $35B
Airbnb 2008 5,000$21B
Walt Disney 1923 185,000 $179B
Facebook 2004 12,691 $410B
Kodak 1888 145,000 $30B (heyday)
Instagram 2010 13 $1B (acquisition)

The transition to Internet era firms resembles the transition
to Industrial era firms … but for the opposite reason
@InfoEcon

InterBrand: 2016 Global Brands @InfoEcon

Dominated by Platforms

Platforms are overtaking energy and banking
Source: Visualcapitalist.com, Bloomberg

The Product Business
Model is Broken
© 2017 Parker, Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com

The Product Business Model is Broken
In 2009, BlackBerry had nearly 50% market share in U.S.
operating systems, according to IDC. Now: 2.1%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

1980-2000 Microsoft Platform Beats Apple Product
Apple launched the PC revolution but Microsoft licensed
widely, built a huge developer ecosystem, 6X larger.

InterBrand: 2016 Global Brands @InfoEcon

Moovel: Daimler’s mobility services ecosystem
• One stop shop for urban
mobility
• Compare transport time &
cost across bus, train, taxi,
bike & walk
• Book & pay Car2Go,
MyTaxi, Flinkster
• CROOVE is Airbnb for
Mercedes Benz & others
• Valet pickup / dropoff,
insurance by Allianz
Gathers information and community in a single place

Does having an API Strategy matter?

Information cost relevance in construction
Planning
Contractor
Labor
Materials
Supplier
▪ Supplier A represent a small
fraction of total material costs
e.g. 2-4% in construction
▪ Information costs of search,
design, planning, changes,
errors/clashes and coordination
can easily sum to 5-25% or more
▪ Even doubling A’s share will not
overtake share that a platform
can capture working on
information costs
Data source: source: International Facility Management Association, IFMA
Cost of search,
planning, design,
compliance,
coordination,
changes/errors
Info
Non-Info

Information cost relevance in construction
along entire lifecycle
Planning
Contractor
Labor
Materials
Savings from smart
facilities
management
Supplier
▪ Majority of maintenance works
are reactive
▪ The information costs for
maintenance and passive utility
management can easily sum to
10-20% or more
▪ Introducing predictive
maintenance and smart utility
management can have significant
effects
Data source: source: International Facility Management Association, IFMA
Utilities
Maintenance &
repair
Other
Search, planning,
design, compliance,
coordination,
changes/errors
Info
Non-Info
Info

API Economy Visualized: Amazon vs Walmart
Social media / web
Job search / work
E-commerce
Tools / cloud / big data
Payments
API Clusters
Messaging services
Source: Rahul Basole and Peter Evans,
with data from ProgrammableWeb,
Center for Global Enterprise, 2015
Enterprise / storage
Walmart
Amazon SNS
Alexa Web Inform
Amazon
Marketplac
e
Amazon
SimpleDB
Amazon
Product
Advertising
Amazon
CloudWatc
h
Amazon
Flexible
Amazon
Redshift
Amazon
SC2
Amazon S3 Amazon
Mechanical
Turk
Amazon
RDSAmazon
DynamoDB
Amazon Queue
Service
Walmart
Amazon
Companies

© 2017 Parker & Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon:: marshall@mit.edu :: PlatformEconomics.org
Who is Getting More 3rd Party Value Add?
Source: P. Evans, CGE; CB Insights, Capital IQ, CrunchBase, 2015

Amazon growth over 10 years 2491% vs.
Walmart (48%), Target (23%), Macy’s (-12%), Best Buy (-31%)
Logistics & supply chain squeezing have limits.
External value add is much less limited.

Idea: Business Agility Correlates with…
• Company cultural drivers such as decentralized decisions,
shared purpose, and ‘rewarding’ initiative
• IT assets such as APIs, SDKs, and templates
• Processes such as code reuse and ability to experiment
and fail fast

Idea: Firm Performance Is Driven By…
• Sales & Net Income increase from B2C APIs
• Operational efficiency increase from internal APIs
• Cost reduction and supply chain efficiency from B2B APIs
• Market Cap gains from agility and from APIs
BizBiz Cust
Upstrea
m
APIs
Dnstream
APIs
Internal
APIs
B2
B
B2
C

Empirical Strategy
Questions on:
❑ API Strategy
❑ Time to spot trends
❑ Parallel vs Serial decisions
❑ Risk taking culture
❑ Reuse
❑ …
❑ Experimentation
➔ Business Agility Index (BAI)
Data from:
❑ 239 API using firms including
usage intensity
❑ 132 Firms’ financials from
Compustat, Orbis, Hoovers
❑ 4 to 1 match of non-API adopting
firms
❑ Supplemental research on
developer portals (e.g. Wayback
Machine)
➔ Rigorous econometric testing
Survey of 500 Firms Match Firms’ API use to $$$

Industries vary on API use
Have API Strategy
No API Strategy

Monetization strategies

Our IT Dept Heavily Reuses Assets
Have API Strategy
No API Strategy

Our IT Dept is Unparalleled in Ability to Fail Fast & Experiment
Have API Strategy
No API Strategy
API adopters spend less time on maintenance and more on innovation

Customer Satisfaction is Much Higher Than Our Top Competitor
Have API Strategy
No API Strategy

Firms experience Net Income gains.
Large Market Cap gains of 2-10% after API adoption
Log net income grouped by adoption date
Source: Benzell, Lagarda, Van Alstyne (2016) “The Role of APIs in the Firm Performance” using Apigee data

Where to begin?
Firms starting with Internal APIs showed earliest gains
Source: Benzell, Lagarda, Van Alstyne (2016) “The Role of APIs in the Firm Performance” using Apigee data
BizBiz Cust
Upstrea
m
APIs
Dnstream
APIs
Internal
APIs
B2
B
B2
C
Biz

How are these Related?
1: Each side attracts the Other
2: They’re all outside – provide external ecosystem
Uber Riders
eBay Buyers
Xbox Gamers
Amex CardHolders
Aga Khan Patients
YouTube Viewers
AirBnb Renters
Tesla Car Drivers
Mechanical Turk Jobs
LinkedIn Employees
Upwork Freelancers
Android Users
Uber Drivers
eBay Sellers
Xbox Developers
Amex Merchants
Aga Khan Doctors
YouTube Videographers
AirBnb Rooms
Tesla Charge Stations
Mechanical Turk Laborers
LinkedIn Employers
Upwork Projects
Android Developers

Network Effects: Users create value for Users
Source: Albert Cañigueral “Platforms are Eating the World” slideshare.net
@InfoEcon

The giants of the Internet era resemble those of
the Industrial era but for the opposite reason.

Giants of Supply Side Economies of scale
Standard Oil
1909
Acklam Ironworks
1924
Vanderbilt
Colossus of
(Rail) Roads
Electric
Dynamo
1893
Ford Model T
1908

Giants of Demand Side Economies of scale
Social Networks
Windows OS Mobile
Merchant Mkts

In any market with network effects, the focus of
attention must shift from inside to outside the firm.
Reason: You can’t scale network effects inside as
easily as outside.
@InfoEcon

Value creation shifts from internal to external
servicing
What Changes :: Operations & Logistics

Value creation inside versus outside

STEP
1
STEP
2
STEP
3
STEP
…
STEP
N

DEMAND
PLATFORM
SUPPLY

Business Models Can Overlap
Platforms Scale More than Pipes
Dell
Coca Cola
Apple
Samsung
Airbnb
Uber

Founded in 2008, Airbnb operates at global scale:
1M+ listings, 34,000 cities, 180 countries
Identify spare capacity, scale across boundaries
Paris
5,692 listings40,000 listings 8,105 listings
Berlin Sydney
Source: http://tomslee.net/airbnb-data, 2015Courtesy Peter Evans © 2016

``In 2015, Uber, the world’s
largest taxi company owns no
vehicles, Facebook the world’s
most popular media owner creates
no content, Alibaba the most
valuable retailer has no inventory,
and Airbnb the world’s largest
hotelier owns no real estate.’’
Tom Goodwin, Sr. VP of Strategy Havas Media

Platforms Open Themselves to Third Party
Contributions
What Changes :: R&D and Innovation

A platform is a system that
can be… adapted to
countless needs and
niches that the platform’s
original developers could
not possibly have
contemplated…”
Mark Andreessen: Venture Capitalist, Netscape
Founder, Board HP, eBay© 2017 Parker, Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com

It’s Working when Users do Something You Didn’t Expect
Hay Carrier
RacecarFlour Mill
Ford Model T

It’s Working when Users do Something You Didn’t Expect
Snowmobile
Goat
Carrier
Sawmill
Mobile
Church

− Open to .com”
Open to developers −
The Rise & Ignominius Fall of MySpace – Business Week 2011
Does Openness Work?

The Rise & Ignominius Fall of MySpace – Business Week 2011
‘‘We tried to create every feature in the world and said,
‘O.K., we can do it, why should we let a third party do
it?’ ‘’ says (MySpace cofounder) DeWolfe.
‘’We should have picked 5 to 10 key features that we
totally focused on and let other people innovate on
everything else.’’
Does Openness Work?

Most firms can only concentrate
on most valuable apps
Profits increase when others add
to platform’s Long Tail
You don’t need to
own this
Platforms Get Enormous Value from 3rd Party Developers

▪ Consider product innovation
alone
▪ Harnessing 3rd party
resources, innovation occurs
at a higher combined rate
▪ Even if a platform starts
behind, its value overtakes
the product leader
▪ Shed costs, keep 30% gains!
Why Platforms Beat Products
Time
ValueAdded

▪ Finance
Shareholder Value → Stakeholder Value
Incorporate network effects
▪ Human Resources
Internal Employees →
External communities
▪ R&D
Experts & Specialized departments →
Crowdsourcing & Open Innovation
▪ Strategy
Entry Barriers & Inimitable Resources →
Ecosystem husbandry & Long Tail
▪ Marketing
Push → Pull, Outbound → Inbound
▪ IT
Back Office (ERP) → Front Office
(CRM) → Out-of-Office (Social & Big
Data)
▪ Operations & Logistics
Uber: biggest taxi company, no taxis,
Airbnb (biggest accommodations but
no real estate), Facebook (biggest
media firm but creates no content),
Alibaba (biggest merchant but has no
inventory)
Network Effects & Inverting the Firm Changes… @InfoEcon

Products To Platforms:
1-Open Supply Chain
2 – Add Information & Communities

Traditional Supply Chain
Supply
$ $
Assemble
$
Manufacture Retail
(1) Value accumulates from stage to stage
(2) Standard linear value chain
(3) Logistics optimize stuff (usu. not incentives)
(4) No network effects

Traditional Supply Chain
Biz
$ $
Biz
$
Biz Cust
Potential B2B PlatformPotential B2C Platform

Creating a B2C Platform
BizBiz Cust
Potential B2C Platform
Biz
Biz Cust
1. Make your business a platform by facilitating interactions across your systems.

Creating a B2C Platform
Biz Cust
Biz
BizBiz CustCust
1. Make your business a platform by facilitating interactions across your systems.
2. Expand the biz partners who can reach your customers.
3. Expand the customers who can reach your suppliers.
4. Foster network effects with high quality interactions.

Example: Converting a Product to
Platform

57© 2017 Parker & Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com © 2017 Parker & Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com
• Incandescent light bulb, Joseph Swan
• Edison patent filed 1878
• Same bulb 137 years later
• Energy efficiency < 5%
• Retail price $0.40

58© 2017 Parker & Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com © 2017 Parker & Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com
• Blue Ocean product strategy
• Compact fluorescent
efficiency 11%
• LED luminous efficiency 15%
• Multicolor programmable
• Retail price $4 - $40

IoT Platform Strategy: Data, Sensors, Open Ecosystem
• Offer Wii, Bluetooth, or Cloud
• Security alert – intruder or
toddler wondering onto street
• Bundle energy demand, sell
demand management to utility
• Time for grandma’s medication
• Voice Commands:
o “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”
o Remind John to take out garbage
Can give away $4-40 bulbs and charge for servicesTry selling $4 bulb when competitor gives away $40 bulb
freePlatforms are the business models for IoT

• Washers by softener and soap
• Printers buy paper and ink
• Espresso machines buy coffee and milk
• Thermostats buys energy
Sanjay Sarma, codeveloper many RFID standards
When Things Buy Things – API Connectivity Explodes

Marketing changes: point of interception is
not the person but the API. Sell laundry
or printing or coffee as a service
Machine changes: sell the device or enable
the plug-in and sell the service
Sanjay Sarma, codeveloper many RFID standards
When Things Buy Things – API Connectivity Explodes

What’s Next?

Car as Platform

Block Chain & Finance as Platform
$ €
¥ £€ $ ¥ £
€

Architecture Information Modules as Platform

City as Platform

Internet of Things as Platform

Energy/Smart Grid as Platform

Education as Platform

Healthcare as Platform

1. Platforms beat products every time – faster innovation, value
proportional to use
2. Business models differ because network effects (i.e. demand
economies of scale) invert the firm, creating new monopolies
3. Information & Community are key resources
4. APIs are key. Relative to non-users, API users report:
a. Lower maintenance costs & more innovation
b. More ability to fail fast and experiment
c. Higher customer satisfaction
d. APIs predict a 2-10% increase in market cap!
@InfoEcon

@InfoEcon1. Introduction
2. Network Effects
3. Architecture
4. Disruption
5. Launch
6. Monetization
7. Openness
8. Governance
9. Metrics
10. Strategy
11. Policy
12. Future
Available on Amazon here.

THANK YOU
QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION
mva@bu.edu
Twitter: @InfoEcon
Find research HERE. Find blog posts HERE.
MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy

74© 2013 Parker, Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com © 2014 Parker, Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com
Services
Protected by Credentialing, Complexity, Regulation & Hard Assets
Consumer
Goods
Home Goods Automotive
Conslt: Eden MacC
Labor : oDesk
$$$: eToro, Kickstr
News : Twitter
Insurance : ?
Law : LegalZoom
Education : edX
Art & Craft : Etsy
Apparel:Lee & Fung
Shirts : Threadless
Shoes : Nike Fuel
Watches : Apple
Thermostat : Nest
Lighting : Philips
Appliance : Haier
Rides : Uber
Cars : 3d Printed
Cars : Mercedes
Info & Tech
Games : Nintendo
Cloud : AWS
Search : Google
OS : MS Windows
Maps : Google APIs
PDF : Adobe
Movies : Netflix

75© 2013 Parker, Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com © 2014 Parker, Van AlstyneTwitter: @InfoEcon :: mva@bu.edu :: PlatformEconomics.com
Food & Agri
Protected by Credentialing, Complexity, Regulation & Hard Assets
Crop Yield : IBM
Spices : McCormick
Energy &
Mining
Heavy Industry Government
Farming : eChoupal
Mining : Gold Corp
Utility : EnerNOC
Tractors : Hitachi
Engines : GE Predix City : Singapore
Medicine
Devices : Biomet
MRI : Cohealo
Healthcare:Harvard

The Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy -- and How to Make Them Work for You

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The Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy -- and How to Make Them Work for You