Business%20Platforms

1
Business Platforms

• From Bricks to Clicks

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Platform Concept
Platform provides services and facilities for
next level up (Eg. Payment)
Platform provides services and facilities for
next level up (Eg. Guarding)
Platform provides services and facilities for
next level up (Eg. Physical location)
3
Platforms of the Past

• Gatherers didnt 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

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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)

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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

6
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
)
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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
• Well use the example of the simple market place
  or market space (to move it from the geographical
  metaphor)

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The Market Space
BUYER
SELLER
Owners of the market space get a fee for this
intermediation service.
Threats
Threats
SIMPLE INTERMEDIATION
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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.

Each of these represents a business opportunity
BUYER
SELLER
These complex interactions result in a hierarchy
made possible by layers of intermediation
COMPLEX INTERMEDIATION
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Growth of Hierarchies
A more complex form of intermediation is being a
navigator among brokerages
HIERARCHY
One possibility for intermediation is brokerage
BUYER
SELLER
An even more complex form of intermediation is
trraining or consulting in how to use navigators
COMPLEX INTERMEDIATION GIVES RISE TO HIERARCHIES
11
Breaking Down of Hierarchies
The user can take over many of the intermediation
functions, resulting in dis-intermediation
hierarchies are broken down and the market space
is recreated
MARKET SPACE
Assuming the user has the tools and the skills
and the opportunities
As Internet replaces the Hierarchies of the
Market Space, the user becomes empowered
BUYER
SELLER
INTERMEDIATION
DIS
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Reinstalling Hierarchies
Providers can find niches within the interstices
and reintermediate the market space,
reintroducing hierarchical structures.
MARKET SPACE
However, the complexity of the Internet creates
more interstices.
BUYER
SELLER
INTERMEDIATION
RE
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E-Commerce Business Platforms
Of course, the technology is a lower level
platform!
At this level, the platform is capable of
supporting businesses
Services might include validation, verification,
payment, financing

• 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

Who customers are, what products are made and
sold, how business functions
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Revolution? Evolution!

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