Software partnerships and business models: Appstores - online marketplaces for partner products

The European Workshop on Software Ecosystems is an annual event which connects top notch researchers and business professionals in the field of software and platform ecosystems as well as business networks. Here is an example of a topic we will discuss at the event.

Appstore description

Large software or device vendors usually offer an Appstoreto sell applications based on their platforms. Customers of the Appstore gather there to look for complementing solutions from partners. Partners have the opportunity to advertise partner solutions exactly where customers are looking for the solutions.

Business model canvas for appstores

The value proposition of the marketplace for the partner contains two items. The first value proposition is access to the customer base of the appstore provider as well as to other partners and other visitors of the marketplace. The second value proposition is the additional revenue the partner can get from selling to the customers of the appstore provider.

Customer relationships: the software vendor has to care for the referral relationship to the partner and the customer. The partner might get engaged with customer segments containing customers of the software vendor, prospects of the software vendor, other partners of the software vendors visiting the marketplace and other visitors of the marketplace as well.

More details and background information can be found in these books: