Business Platforms

From Bricks to Clicks

“Platform” Concept

Platform provides services and facilities for next level up

(Eg. Physical location)

Platform provides services and facilities for next level up

(Eg. Guarding)

Platform provides services and facilities for next level up

(Eg. Payment)

Platforms of the Past

• Gatherers didn’t need a platform; the natural world provided all the services needed.

• Hunters required planning, some weapons and tools, communication, memory

• Farmers required hunter facilities, plus logistics and a market place to trade

Business

• Business is a unique “platformed” activity It requires more than one individual There are social and cultural processes and values

involved

• Historically there have been three platforms: Cart (business comes to customers) irregular or

regular Marketplace (customers, business convene on

regular but not constant basis) “High Street” or business district (customers come to

business on regular, constant schedule)

Platform Needs of Business

• Secure venue (physical, emotional)

• Commodity services (weighing, storage)

• Logistics services (incoming, outgoing)

• Economic services (lending, money changing)

• Brokerages

• Additional services as business becomes more sophisticated

Services into Platforms

• As these services are organized into ways they can be accessed and used, the loose collection becomes a platform

• A platform is a structured, configurable set of services and facilities.

• (Flash forward: If this set is also programmable, never gets tired or bored, has memory and deals only with data we have…. E-Commerce )

Intermediation

• Business beyond the cart stage has never been simply the meeting of one buyer and one seller

• Business services are needed and these require “intermediation”

• We’ll use the example of the simple market place or market space (to move it from the geographical metaphor)

The Market Space

BUYERSELLER

MARKETSPACE

Traditionally, buyer and seller come together in

market space where they can

confidently transact.

BUYER SELLER

SIMPLE INTERMEDIATIONThreats ThreatsOwners of the market space get

a fee for this intermediation

service.

Multiplication of Intermediaries In the traditional

marketspace, the owners provide safety, security,

standards, replicability,

recording, transportation, etc. to increase

the confidence of buyers and

sellers.

BUYER SELLER

As interaction becomes more complex, more possibilities for intermediation

arise

Each of these represents a

business opportunity

COMPLEX INTERMEDIATION

These complex interactions result

in a hierarchy made possible by

layers of intermediation

Growth of Hierarchies

HIERARCHY

BUYER SELLER

A more complex form of

intermediation is being a navigator

among brokeragesOne possibility

for intermediation is brokerage

COMPLEX INTERMEDIATION GIVES RISE TO HIERARCHIES

An even more complex form

of intermediation is trraining or consulting in

how to use navigators

Breaking Down of Hierarchies

MARKETSPACE

The user can take over many of the intermediation

functions, resulting in “dis-intermediation”; hierarchies are

broken down and the market space

is recreated

As Internet replaces the

Hierarchies of the Market Space, the

user becomes “empowered”

INTERMEDIATION

BUYER SELLER

Assuming the user has the tools and the skills and the opportunities

DIS

Reinstalling Hierarchies

MARKETSPACE

Providers can find niches within the interstices and “reintermediate” the market space,

reintroducing hierarchical structures.

However, the complexity of the Internet creates more interstices.

INTERMEDIATION

BUYER SELLER

RE

E-Commerce Business Platforms

• The Internet is the base service• The WWW and its derivatives becomes

the base business platform• Additional business services are made

available on the Web to support businesses

• Speed, memory, etc. make it possible to change business models quickly, perhaps too quickly for some businesses

Of course, the

technology is a lower level

platform!

At this level, the platform is capable of supporting businessesServices might

include validation, verification, payment, financingWho customers

are, what products are

made and sold, how business

functions

Revolution? Evolution!

• The WWW is simply the latest in a series of business platforms

• It’s different in terms of speed, breadth of local (global!), programmability, flexibility, and media

• Its “difference” is most noticeable when a significant number of business model terms are “electronic” or data entities

• But it is still “business”