In the last century, we have witnessed the rise of a new kind of company, one that leverages on a new business model - the platform.Though platform companies are very common, they can take extremely diverse forms in today’s business landscape. People use the term ‘platform’ to mean many different things. Managers are often confused about which is platform business and which is not. When it comes to platform strategy, things become even more complicated.Using real world examples, this book acts as a primer for platform strategy, discussing the underlying mechanism of various types of platform models to help people understand what platform business is and what they can do with it. Theories and frameworks appropriate for understanding platform business are introduced and related cases follow to support readers’ understanding. The diverse and international case studies analysed range from IBM’s horizontal production platform, to the digital platform of China’s breakout smartphone star, Xiaomi.This book will not only enable readers to understand platform business, but also teach them how to harness these frameworks to build effective strategies for their own platform business pursuits.
