the.com/platform design
build the stage, not the show, then let strangers put on better shows than you imagined.
means designing the underlying rules, tools, and infrastructure that let outside parties create value on top of what you built.
from the term migrated from railway platforms and oil rig platforms into software in the 1990s, once companies realized an operating system or an app store worth more as a place others build on than as a product itself.
two sided problemchicken and egg: no users without developers, no developers without users
value shiftplatform owner captures value it never directly creates
governance mattersrules and apis are the real product, not the interface
lock-in riskswitching costs often exceed the platform's actual usefulness
for instance
app store — apple took a 30 percent cut of a trillion dollar app economy
aws — amazon's internal infrastructure became a 90 billion dollar business unit
windows api — microsoft let third party software run the pc revolution of the 1990s
shopify — gave small merchants the same checkout infrastructure as amazon