Google business models and revenue sources #ewseco
Google functions under diverse business models and revenue streams. Presented here are five illustrations:
1. The primary source of revenue for Google is the advertising displayed on its search engine and various platforms such as YouTube. In 2020, Google's advertising revenue reached approximately $147 billion, making a substantial contribution to its profits.
2. Cloud Services: Google Cloud provides cloud computing services to enterprises, generating revenue through subscription-based frameworks. The revenue from Google Cloud in 2020 was about $13 billion, displaying an increasing impact on profits.
3. Sales of Hardware: Google markets hardware items like Pixel smartphones, Nest smart home gadgets, and Chromecast. The revenue from hardware sales in 2020 was about $10 billion, with profit margins varying among product categories.
4. Play Store: Google gains revenue from the Play Store by receiving a share of app sales and in-app transactions. The revenue from the Play Store in 2020 was estimated at $10 billion, with substantial profit margins attributed to the digital essence of the platform.
5. Licensing and Other Services: Google also derives revenue through licensing contracts, collaborations, and other services such as Google Workspace (previously known as G Suite). These services collectively contribute to Google's overall revenue and profits.
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The top 5 global companies with aggregator business models
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.
The top 5 global companies with aggregator business models, revenue, and growth rate in the last 5 years are:
1. Amazon - Revenue: $386 billion (2020), Growth Rate: 21% (2020-2024).
2. Uber - Revenue: $14.1 billion (2020), Growth Rate: 25% (2020-2024).
3. Airbnb - Revenue: $3.4 billion (2020), Growth Rate: 30% (2020-2024).
4. Booking.com - Revenue: $15.1 billion (2020), Growth Rate: 18% (2020-2024).
5. Expedia - Revenue: $11.7 billion (2020), Growth Rate: 15% (2020-2024).
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More details and background information can be found in these books:
How can you foster innovation in software ecosystems - six examples
Innovation is at the heart of every successful software ecosystem. Fostering a culture of innovation not only drives growth and success but also creates a competitive edge. Here are six examples of how you can foster innovation in software ecosystems:
1. Encourage a Collaborative Environment:
Create spaces for open communication and idea-sharing among software development teams. Collaboration fosters creativity and leads to innovative solutions.
2. Invest in Research and Development:
Allocate resources to R&D efforts to explore new technologies, methodologies, and trends. This investment can yield groundbreaking innovations.
3. Embrace Agile Methodologies:
Adopt agile practices to enable quick iterations, adaptability, and continuous improvement. Agile methodologies promote innovation by allowing teams to respond to change and deliver high-quality software.
4. Promote a Culture of Learning:
Encourage continuous learning and skill development among team members. By staying updated on the latest industry trends, individuals can bring fresh perspectives and innovative ideas to the table.
5. Support Hackathons and Innovation Challenges:
Organize events that challenge developers to ideate and create innovative solutions within a limited timeframe. Hackathons drive creativity and often result in pioneering software concepts.
6. Foster Entrepreneurial Mindset:
Encourage developers to think like entrepreneurs and take ownership of their projects. This mindset cultivates a sense of ownership and drive to innovate.
By implementing these strategies, software ecosystems can create an environment that nurtures creativity, experimentation, and advancement, ultimately leading to groundbreaking innovations.
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Why don´t you choose one of the following topics to continue:
Plattform-Geschäftsmodelle - die Grundlagen
Plattform-Geschäftsmodelle - die Grundlagen
In einem Buch mit dem Titel Business Model Generation (2010) von Osterwalder und Pigneur geht es um Plattformen, zu deren Beispielen Apple, Visa, Google, eBay und Microsoft Windows gehören. Eines der erfolgreichsten Geschäftsmodelle dieser Ära ist das Plattform-Geschäftsmodell, das ein Ökosystem verwaltet und unterhält, um wirtschaftlichen Wert in Form von Transaktionsgebühren oder auf andere Weise zu erzielen. (Quellen: 11, 16, 17)
In der Regel schafft ein Plattform-Geschäftsmodell Werte, indem es den Austausch zwischen zwei oder mehreren voneinander abhängigen Gruppen erleichtert. Es macht sich ein Ökosystem von Nutzern wie Konsumenten, Produzenten, Verkäufern, Käufern, Fahrern, Gastgebern oder Gästen zunutze, um Transaktionen zwischen ihnen innerhalb eines großen Netzwerks zu erleichtern. (Quellen: 1, 4, 16)
Plattformtypen und Design
Obwohl es eine Reihe verschiedener Plattformtypen und viele verschiedene Klassifizierungen gibt, sind die beiden gängigsten Plattform-Geschäftsmodelle die so genannten Transaktionsplattformen und Innovations-Ökosystem-Plattformen. [Quellen: 8, 14] Transaktionsplattformen ermöglichen Transaktionen zwischen Teilnehmern, die sich in der Regel auf verschiedenen Seiten der Plattform befinden. Innovations-Ökosystem-Plattformen bieten ein Umfeld, in dem die Teilnehmer über das Angebot der Plattform hinaus innovieren können. Ein typisches Beispiel aus der Technologiebranche ist die Schaffung einer Reihe von APIs, die von einer Plattform bereitgestellt werden, um darauf aufbauend Lösungen zu entwickeln. Innovations-Ökosystem-Plattformen mit großen Ökosystemen sind Infrastructure-as-a-Service-Anbieter wie Amazon, Google oder Alibaba.
Bei Transaktionsplattformen liegt der Schwerpunkt nicht auf der Generierung von Einnahmen auf Transaktionsbasis aus der Produktion und dem Verkauf von Waren und Dienstleistungen, sondern das Geschäftsmodell der Plattform ermöglicht wertvolle Verbindungen zwischen den Nutzern. Die Suche nach den richtigen Kerntransaktionen, die zwischen den Nutzern der Plattform ermöglicht werden sollen, ist ein wichtiger Teil des Plattformdesigns, da das Plattformgeschäft darauf angewiesen ist, dass seine Nutzer diese Transaktionen wiederholen, um einen Wertaustausch zu generieren. (Quellen: 1, 5, 14)
Bei der Gestaltung von Plattformen für Innovationsökosysteme geht es vor allem darum, den Teilnehmern eine niedrigschwellige, leicht zu bedienende Umgebung zu bieten, damit sich schnell ein großes Ökosystem von Innovatoren bilden kann. Es müssen aber auch faire Regeln für die Innovatoren aufgestellt werden, um den von ihnen geschaffenen Wert zu erfassen.
Ein Plattform-Ökosystem wird demnach durch die Beschreibung des stattfindenden Wertaustauschs, der Regeln für die Geschäftspraktiken der Plattform und der den Nutzern zur Verfügung stehenden Werkzeuge gestaltet. Das Aufkommen vernetzter Technologien und Ökosysteme ermöglicht es Plattformen, auf eine Weise zu skalieren, wie es traditionelle Unternehmen nicht können. [Quellen: 1, 15]
Plattformen und traditionelle Unternehmen
Wir bezeichnen traditionelle Unternehmen, die keine Plattformen sind, als lineare Unternehmen, weil ihre Tätigkeit als eine typische lineare Lieferkette entlang einer Pipeline von Unternehmen beschrieben werden kann. Plattformunternehmen wandeln das Pipeline-Geschäftsmodell, bei dem die Wertschöpfung einseitig ist und Engpässen in der Lieferkette unterliegt, in ein Plattform-Geschäftsmodell um, bei dem die Wertschöpfung in der Regel mindestens zweiseitig und kontinuierlich ist. [Quellen: 1, 8,11]
Plattformen, die zu einem Teil unseres täglichen Lebens geworden sind, haben ihr Geschäft auf leistungsstarken Plattformtechnologien aufgebaut, die sich mit unseren Werten befassen und eine Verbindung zu ihnen herstellen. Die Unternehmen werden sich irgendwann an dieses neue Modell anpassen müssen, da sie sonst Gefahr laufen, von Plattformen unterbrochen zu werden. (Quellen: 0, 2, 14)
Lineare Unternehmen holen nicht nur auf, sondern schlagen auch zurück und überspringen bekannte Plattformen wie Amazon, Facebook und Google und investieren in die Entwicklung von KI, künstlicher Intelligenz und Blockchain-Technologien, um ihnen bei der Schaffung von Plattform-2.0-Modellen zu helfen. [Quellen: 9, 12, 13]
Diskutieren Sie mit uns auf dem European Workshop on Software Ecosystems 2024
Quellen:
[0]: https://blog.hypeinnovation.com/platform-models-are-the-new-order-of-business-need
[1]: https://www.applicoinc.com/blog/what-is-a-platform-business-model/
[2]: https://www.wired.com/insights/2013/10/why-business-models-fail-pipes-vs-platforms/
[3]: https://bernardmarr.com/the-9-most-successful-business-models-of-today/
[4]: https://www.publicissapient.com/insights/platforms-are-powerful-business-models
[5]: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/platform
[6]: https://bstrategyhub.com/50-types-of-business-models-the-best-examples-of-companies-using-it/
[7]: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/benefits-of-platform-business-model/
[8]: https://www.cio.com/article/3134028/platform-business-models-a-primer.html
[9]: https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/innovation/articles/platform-business-model-explained.html
[10]: https://hbr.org/2019/05/a-study-of-more-than-250-platforms-reveals-why-most-fail
[11]: https://medium.com/euro-freelancers/platform-economy-the-4-key-business-models-1fc0eda7241e
[12]: https://innovator.news/the-platform-economy-3c09439b56
[13]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630118306368
[14]: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/platform-business-models-explained-robert-farrell
[15]: https://platformbusinessmodel.com/platform-business-model-meaning/
[16]: https://fourweekmba.com/platform-business-models/
[17]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2016/06/22/how-to-succeed-with-a-platform-business-model/
Current hot research topics in software ecosystems and platforms #ewseco
In the current landscape of research concerning software ecosystems and platforms, there is a notable surge in interest towards various trending subjects.
A significant focal point revolves around the evolution and dynamics of software ecosystems, investigating the progression of these intricate systems comprising interdependent software elements and entities over time. Scholars are immersing themselves in the underlying mechanisms steering ecosystem development, including platform governance, ecosystem configuration, and the involvement of key stakeholders. Another pivotal subject entails platform ecosystems and their influence on innovation and competitive dynamics. Academics are scrutinizing how the dynamics of platforms impact strategies for innovation, competitive interactions, and the generation of value within ecosystems.
Grasping the interconnectedness among platform governance, ecosystem structure, and innovation is paramount for organizations aiming to excel in digital markets. Moreover, the advent of novel technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things is reshaping software ecosystems and platforms. Researchers are probing into how these technologies disrupt conventional ecosystems, forge fresh avenues for collaboration, and affect ecosystem governance and sustainability.
Furthermore, the ascent of open-source software and collaborative development models is reshaping the terrain of software ecosystems. Investigations are analyzing the ramifications of open-source communities, decentralized development processes, and the contribution of participants in shaping ecosystem dynamics and platform advancement.
On the whole, the realm of research on software ecosystems and platforms is dynamic and interdisciplinary, encompassing realms such as network theory, innovation management, digital platforms, and software engineering. By tackling these trending subjects, researchers aspire to offer insights that can aid organizations in navigating the intricacies of contemporary software ecosystems and harnessing platforms for sustainable expansion and innovation.
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More details and background information can be found in these books:
Key Aspects of Platform Business Models
Get into discussions with us at the European Workshop on software ecosystems
Get tickets here https://ewseco.squarespace.com/tickets
Key Aspects of Platform Business Models
Platform business models have several key aspects. These include: Homogeneous supply, Collaboration, Scalability, and Asymmetric Growth. Each of these elements is critical for a platform to thrive. These characteristics are discussed in this article. These factors will help you create a platform that is effective for your business.
Homogeneous supply
Platform business models are characterized by the capture of economic value in the form of transaction fees and become major centralizers, in some cases affecting hundreds of small businesses. These models emerged as a result of the Web, which digitized information and communications around the world at large scale.
The success of a two-sided platform depends on the ability to attract enough producers and consumers to participate. However, this is not always possible. In addition, the participation of consumers and producers may not be equal. For platforms to succeed, there must be enough participants to create value for all participants.
Platform business models leverage network effects to connect third-party producers with a large number of customers. They benefit from the unrivaled insight into customer behavior that the platform operator can gain from collecting data. Furthermore, platform operators receive a commission or rent from participating market players.
Communication
In a platform business model, one of the most important factors is communication. It is essential to establish a shared vision and strategy across the organization, so that everyone involved can contribute to its success. Communication between the different business units is crucial, as is collaboration. The goal is to create a highly successful platform that connects stakeholders, reduces transaction costs, and enables externalized innovation.
Platforms typically manifest across three layers of infrastructure. First, the platform layer provides open access connectivity to any service provider. This connectivity infrastructure enables a wide range of customer-facing solutions and services. It also helps enable new business models that leverage cloud-based software and infrastructure. Platforms might also have open APIs and could integrate with existing IT infrastructure.
The ownership structure of a platform will vary depending on its purpose and nature. Some are co-owned by users, while others are owned by their owners. For example, Wikipedia is a platform that is managed by a group of people, while the Danish Agricultural Cooperative is owned by venture capitalists.
The platform business model can also create new economic opportunities. By leveraging scale and standardization, platforms can drive innovation and wide adoption of new technologies. They have the ability to make a huge difference in society. In addition, they help to facilitate new forms of employment and create new avenues for a decent and sustainable life.
Platform business models are based on communication. Platforms are an ecosystem where consumers and producers interact to create value.
Collaboration
Platform business models create value by facilitating interactions among many participants. These interactions may involve short-term transactions or the formation of long-term social relationships. They may also involve collaborative efforts to achieve a common goal, such as the acceleration of performance improvement or the development of new knowledge. The platforms also provide the governance structure, standards, and protocols that enable this process. These platform business models are growing in importance and are now becoming the norm for many businesses.
Platform-based collaboration services go beyond traditional solutions and utilize a unified information system to serve as a cockpit to monitor inter-organizational processes. For example, a collaborative sales service makes use of these capabilities by providing a retailer with insights into the top-selling goods from its partners, and it can also match special offers with products. These services are all powered by a common canonical data component.
Platform-based collaboration services can reduce the size of new collaboration projects and improve inter-organizational processes. In addition, platform-based collaboration services help organizations accelerate inter-organizational processes and decrease project effort. A key advantage of this collaboration service is its speed and flexibility. This feature is not available in traditional collaboration services, and it can help companies boost their profile by enabling faster collaboration.
Scalability
Scalability refers to an organization's ability to grow and expand without compromising its structure and resources. With advances in technology, businesses have become more flexible and able to acquire more customers and expand their markets globally. While the scale of an organization may be limited in the beginning, it can become more profitable as it continues to grow.
If a business cannot scale without hindering its structure or resources, the outcome can be disastrous. It may have to hire additional employees and pay more to serve increased demand, which ultimately reduces its profit. This is known as diseconomies of scale, and can lead to business failure. Scalability is closely related to economics, but the concept is simple enough that it is easy to understand.
Platform business models allow companies to leverage connected technology to connect people and resources. Platforms reduce transaction costs and help businesses to scale up. By building a network of connections, these businesses can create a highly effective platform. As a result, they can create new businesses and disrupt existing industries. It is essential to understand how platforms work to get the most out of this model.
While it is important to scale up, there are times when growth can make an organization inefficient. Using a platform business model allows a company to expand without sacrificing quality. For example, a social networking service may be more effective if it can grow at a steady rate. By using an app to allow users to share data, a company can easily add more users and maintain the quality of its services.
Asymmetric growth
Platform-based markets have become increasingly common over the past several years, from search engines to smartphones. In these markets, a platform serves as the central hub and attracts complementary companies that leverage the platform's managerial, logistical, and technical infrastructure. This model allows companies to diversify their product or service offerings while maintaining their core business.
The ability of platform owners to claim value depends on their understanding of the ecosystem they're operating in and their ability to coordinate the value-creation mechanisms within that ecosystem. By providing affordances and facilitating transactions, successful platforms become a breeding ground for innovation. This is particularly true for the growth of new technology and services.
Platforms may also be costly to maintain, such as the infrastructure and governance of the platform. Furthermore, platform owners can choose to restrict the ecosystem to internal users only, or they can open it up to other complementary entities. The degree of openness will determine the amount of competition that will occur both within and between ecosystems. Platform owners must also balance their control rights against the autonomy of the ecosystem actors.
Platform ownership is an important factor for designing and governing a digital platform ecosystem. It not only refers to the legal entity that owns a digital platform, but it also refers to the way in which power is distributed within the ecosystem. Different platforms have different governance mechanisms, depending on whether they're centralized or decentralized.
Platforms often combine multiple complementary products or services. For example, Uber makes it possible to connect drivers and passengers. Likewise, UberEats allows Uber drivers, restaurants, and passengers to interact with each other on the platform.
Now continue to
Platform Business Models – the basics
Building on the shoulders of giants. Shortcuts to Platform Business Success
Why don´t you check other articles on aggregators? Continue to
Aggregator business models: Ten aggregator company examples
Revenue Models For Aggregator Companies
Platform Business Models – the basics
Platform Business Models – the basics
In a book called Business Model Generation (2010) by Osterwalder and Pigneur about versatile platforms, whose examples include Apple, Visa, Google, eBay, and Microsoft Windows. One of the most successful business models of this era is the Platform Business Model, that manages and maintains an ecosystem in order to earn economic value in the form of transaction fees or by other means. [Sources: 11, 16, 17]
Usually, a platform business model creates value by facilitating the exchange of two or more interdependent groups. It harnesses an ecosystem of users such as consumers, producers, sellers, buyers, drivers, hosts, and guests to facilitate transactions between them within a large network. [Sources: 1, 4, 16]
Platform types and design
Although there are a number of different platform types and many different classifications, the two most common platform business models are what we call transaction platforms and innovation ecosystem platforms. [Sources: 8, 14] Transaction platforms enable transactions between participants which are usually on different sides of the platform. Innovation ecosystem platforms provide an environment for participants to innovate on top of the offering of the platform. A typical example from tech industries is the creation of a set of APIs provided by a platform to build solutions on top. Platforms with large ecosystems are infrastructure-as-a-service providers like Amazon, Google, or Alibaba.
For transaction platforms, instead of focusing on generating revenue on a transactional basis from the production and sale of goods and services, the platform's business model facilitates valuable connections between users. Finding the right core transactions to be enabled between users of the platform is an important part of platform design, as the platform business relies on its users repeating these transactions to generate value exchange. [Sources: 1, 5, 14]
The design of innovation ecosystem platforms is centered around providing a low entry threshold, easy to use environment for participants to allow fast creation of a large ecosystem of innovators. But it also has to establish fair rules for innovators to capture the value they create.
The platform ecosystem is designed by describing the exchange of value that takes place, the rules governing the platform's business practices and the tools at the user´s disposal. The emergence of connected technologies and ecosystems enables platforms to scale in ways that traditional companies cannot. [Sources: 1, 15]
Platforms and traditional companies
We call traditional non-platform companies linear companies because their operations can be described as a typical linear supply chain along a pipeline of companies. Platform businesses are transforming the pipeline business model where value creation is one-sided and is subject to supply chain bottlenecks into a platform business model where value creation is typically at least two-sided and continuous. [Sources: 1, 8,11]
Platforms that have become part of our daily lives have built their businesses on powerful platform technologies that drill into what we value and connect to them. Companies will have to adapt to this new model at some point, otherwise they run the risk of being disrupted by platforms. [Sources: 0, 2, 14]
Linear companies are not only catching up, but they are also fighting back and skipping well-known platforms such as Amazon, Facebook and Google and investing in the development of AI, artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies to help them create platform 2.0 models. [Sources: 9, 12, 13]
Now, continue to
Aggregator business models: Ten aggregator company examples
Revenue Models For Aggregator Companies
Ten steps to create an aggregator company
Aggregator business models: full story and future trends
Platform Business Models – the basics
Building on the shoulders of giants. Shortcuts to Platform Business Success
Sources
[0]: https://blog.hypeinnovation.com/platform-models-are-the-new-order-of-business-need
[1]: https://www.applicoinc.com/blog/what-is-a-platform-business-model/
[2]: https://www.wired.com/insights/2013/10/why-business-models-fail-pipes-vs-platforms/
[3]: https://bernardmarr.com/the-9-most-successful-business-models-of-today/
[4]: https://www.publicissapient.com/insights/platforms-are-powerful-business-models
[5]: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/platform
[6]: https://bstrategyhub.com/50-types-of-business-models-the-best-examples-of-companies-using-it/
[7]: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/benefits-of-platform-business-model/
[8]: https://www.cio.com/article/3134028/platform-business-models-a-primer.html
[9]: https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/innovation/articles/platform-business-model-explained.html
[10]: https://hbr.org/2019/05/a-study-of-more-than-250-platforms-reveals-why-most-fail
[11]: https://medium.com/euro-freelancers/platform-economy-the-4-key-business-models-1fc0eda7241e
[12]: https://innovator.news/the-platform-economy-3c09439b56
[13]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630118306368
[14]: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/platform-business-models-explained-robert-farrell
[15]: https://platformbusinessmodel.com/platform-business-model-meaning/
[16]: https://fourweekmba.com/platform-business-models/
[17]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2016/06/22/how-to-succeed-with-a-platform-business-model/
Call for Papers European workshop on software ecosystems: business networks, platforms, ecosystems
Call for papers FOR EWSECO 2021
We would like to invite European researchers and practitioners in the field of software ecosystems, platform ecosystems and business networks to come together in Heilbronn, Germany, on April 29th 2021, to discuss recent (academic) research and recent business experiences and lessons learned, insights or issues related to management of ecosystems, business models or technical issues including but not limited to topics like
Software ecosystems
Research progress and new knowledge for software ecosystems
External forces - the new normal and the impact on software ecosystems
Business networks
Business networks vs. platform businesses
Business networks as platforms for transaction, innovation
Growing business networks by extending beyond participants
Merging different business networks to scale
Platform Business Models
Types of platform business models for transaction, innovation
“Platformizing” existing businesses - how to be successful?
Business model innovation resulting in a platform business model - how to make it work?
Architectures and APIs for platforms
Growth strategies based on platform ecosystems and business networks
Growing by acquiring a platform business
Digital platforms and businesses
data-driven and analytics ecosystems
We will invite practitioners to the workshop to ensure discussion about the practical impact of research and to give the presenters the opportunity to discuss with practitioners and researchers alike.
The workshop location at City Campus in Heilbronn, Germany, with many software and software service companies having an office nearby which eases the participation for practitioners. More information at https://ewseco.squarespace.com/?p
Workshop style
Socialize and discuss with (academic) researchers and fellow professionals.
We value discussion as well as presentations. So a short, 15 minute presentation is followed by 15 min discussion with fellow researchers and practitioners.
The workshop will be held in English language only.
Submissions
Propose your presentation titles via email (title and 100 word abstract) to ewseco21@software-ecosystem.com
Submission deadline is March 16th 2021 6pm CET.
M&A Digitalization: where should data reside?
REQUIREMENT: M&A DATA HAVE TO BE STORED WHEREVER THE CUSTOMER WANTS IT: ON PREMISE, IN THE CLOUD OR HYBRID.
In past years, there always was a dichotomy: either companies were only on premise, storing their crown jewel data on site, or companies ran certain applications in the cloud. Now, hybrid clouds are on the rise. This means there are three options now.
In M&A, data rooms are typically private cloud based storage of highly confidential data during due diligence. Data from other phases are usually stored on site. With all these changes happening and the clear need to manage M&A processes, where should company store their data about all phases of the M&A process ?
On premise?
The safest way to store mission critical data is to store them on premise. locked up. This is perfect for a the early phases. As soon as more people get involved from inside and outside the company, during due diligence and post merger integration, this approach is not perfect.
in the cloud?
Cloud storage makes perfect sense for trustfully giving restricted access to people from different companies. For most companies, this is needed during due diligence and following phases. But many companies also interact with third party companies even before due diligence.
Requirements for M&A process tools
Customers rule. An end-to-end process tool must respect that. No matter if customers choose on site, private cloud or public cloud, vendors of end-to-end process tools should give customers a choice. The customer should decide where to store data.
Mark your calendars April 29 2021 Growth strategies for platform ecosystems
B2C Platforms like Amazon or Alibaba have all the hype and all the envy. But how does a company create, build or run platforms, business networks, a company in the API economy? answers here:
The program committee would like to invite European researchers and practitioners in the field of software ecosystems, platform ecosystems and business networks to come together in Heilbronn, Germany, on April 29th, 2021, to discuss recent (academic) research and recent business experiences and lessons learned, insights or issues related to management of ecosystems, business models or technical issues including but not limited to topics like
Software ecosystems
Research progress and new knowledge for software ecosystems
External forces - the new normal and the impact on software ecosystems
Business networks
Business networks vs. platform businesses
Business networks as platforms for transaction, innovation
Growing business networks by extending beyond participants
Platform Business Models
Types of platform business models for transaction, innovation
“Platformizing” existing businesses - how to be successful?
Business model innovation resulting in a platform business model - how to make it work?
Architectures and APIs for platforms
Growth strategies based on platform ecosystems and business networks
Growing by acquiring a platform business
Digital platforms and businesses
data-driven and analytics ecosystems
We will invite practitioners to the workshop to ensure discussion about the practical impact of research and to give the presenters the opportunity to discuss with practitioners and researchers alike.
The workshop location at City Campus in Heilbronn, Germany, with many software and software service companies having an office nearby which eases the participation for practitioners.
Workshop style
Online or covid-safe onsite in Heilbronn, Germany.
Socialize and discuss with (academic) researchers and fellow professionals.
We value discussion as well as presentations. So a short, 15 minute presentation is followed by 15 min discussion with fellow researchers and practitioners.
The workshop will be held in English language only.
Submissions
Propose your presentation titles or poster proposals via email (title and 100 word abstract) to ewseco17@software-ecosystem.com
Submission deadline is March 15th 2021 6pm CET.
Building on the shoulders of giants. Shortcuts to Platform Business Success
Platform business
Say, you want to start a new two-sided platform business. This blog is about jumpstarting platform businesses from scratch by leveraging other platform
Gravity
Gravity is the number of participants you have on both sides of your platform. Gravity on each side of the platform is a key prerequisite for platform success. Platform success is dependent on gravity because the direct and indirect network effects for the participants of the platform depend on gravity. So how do you create instant gravity?
Usually, companies run advertising campaigns and start recruiting participants on each side of the platform. Under this approach, the focus should be on getting participants with high gravity. High gravity means that they are large companies or they bring their ecosystem on to both sides of the platform to massively increase the number of participants.
One example is SAP Ariba. It is a two sided platform with corporates on one side and suppliers of goods and services on the other side. When they added Rio Tinto on the corporate side of the platform, Rio Tinto brought in thousands of their suppliers and thus created massive gravity on the supplier side, too. So this is one reasonable approach to add gravity.
Free but paid with information
Another approach to create gravity is to offer free functionality on one side of the platform, but charge on the other sides of the platform. Perfect examples are Google and Facebook. Consumers are not charged, but they pay with their data. The price of zero for consumers has the potential to attract many consumers and creates gravity.
Leveraging the gravity of other platforms
Why should a platform company at all start to create gravity from scratch on their own? A new approach i am proposing is to leverage gravity of other platforms for your own platform. The idea is to combine other platforms for your success by building on top of them.
Examples: SAP acquired Coresystems. Coresystems had a crowdsourcing platform for field services, i.e. maintenance and repair scheduling. To get more gravity, the solution was integrated with SAP´s marketplace for temporary workers, SAP Fieldglass, which created massive gravity for crowsourcing field technicians.
Now, continue to
Aggregator business models: Ten aggregator company examples
Revenue Models For Aggregator Companies
Ten steps to create an aggregator company
Aggregator business models: full story and future trends
Platform Business Models – the basics
Building on the shoulders of giants. Shortcuts to Platform Business Success
Proceedings of the European workshop on software ecosystems, held as part of the Platform economy summit, are available
Dear all,
the European workshop on software ecosystems, this year held at the Platform Economy Summit in Berlin, was a huge success.
All the results are in the proceedings, so if you have not been participating, you can get a summary of the discussions in the workshop!
The proceedings are available in print and ebook with the ISBN 9783748140153
at amazon
at BOD, our publisher.
DETAILS
The workshop was held within two sessions of the second day of the First European Platform Economy Summit in Berlin. The first session was a workshop called “New Ecosystem Opportunities & 'White space' Opportunities in Software and High-Tech“ and the second session was a panel about “Network Effects, Data Effects & AI - Keys to the castle“ moderated by Slinger Jansen. You can find more details on both sessions below.
Session one: New Ecosystem Opportunities & 'White space' Opportunities in Software and High-Tech
This design-thinking based workshop featured three short motivating presentations by Peter Buxmann, Sebastien Dupre and Thomas Curran followed by topic-based, hands-on workshops.
Thomas captured the audience by describing his recent success with creating new cloud based ecosystems for digital business in the financial industry. In a traditionally closed industry, what do you do to turn a company into a digital, open platform? Thomas had done just that in a three year project and talked about how to do that successfully.
Peter reported about several studies on the value of data and the importance of privacy. He provided insights into challenges and success factors for software platform providers regarding the value of customer data, customer privacy and tradeoffs between data privacy and data farming by platform providers.
Sebastien showed how Uberization in field service management works by engaging a crowd of service technicians inside and outside of companies. He explained how companies can build an ecosystem connecting field service technicians, partners, own employees and customers to scale their field service operations, increase revenue and provide unmatched customer experience.
All presentations are in the proceedings. The proceedings are available in print and ebook with the ISBN 9783748140153, at amazon, and at BOD, our publisher.
Then we split the crowd of thirty people into three teams that worked together and discussed with the help of the moderators and our design thinking coach Olaf Mackert. First, we ran an introduction game called two truths and one lie, which created a lot of laughter and made everybody ready to work together trustfully.
Then everybody dumped his ideas, questions, issues he or she wanted to discuss on post-its, which were clustered into topics by the moderator. Then the teams voted on the topic to start with. The discussions went on in five minute slots. The team voted on either continuing the discussions on the topic or going to the next topic after each slot.
Thomas Curran´s team, which was the largest team, focused on the technical aspects of creating a platform and technology selection. They had lively and productive discussions leveraging the joint wisdom of the team.
Sebastien´s team of ten discussed topics around uberization of any industry and about changes in strategies for field service management.
Peter Buxmann´s team was a diverse team made up of members from venture capital, manufacturing, public administration which made discussions very interesting based on the different views. The team addressed question around motivations of people to share data, ways to create value from data and also around data protection impact on data-driven business models.
The results of each team are listed in the proceedings. The proceedings are available in print and ebook with the ISBN 9783748140153, at amazon, and at BOD, our publisher.
Session TWO: Network Effects, Data Effects & AI - Keys to the castle
John Rethans, head of Digital Transformation Strategy from Apigee/Google, brought everybody on the same page regarding APIs - what they are and what it means to implement an API driven strategy and technology.
Slinger Jansen from Utrecht University opened the panel with a short presentation about his research. The panel´s focus was on pragmatic aspects of creating successful API platforms. It covered questions like “What is the role of APIs for platforms? How do you build API-based platforms? What are the success factors and pitfalls when building API-based platforms? How to explain their power to non-technical executives and shareholders?”
In addition to Slinger and John, the panel featured the following speakers: Nik Willetts - President & CEO, TM Forum, Andreas von Oettingen - MD of Factor10.
The presentations are in the proceedings. The proceedings are available in print and ebook with the ISBN 9783748140153, at amazon, and at BOD, our publisher.
best regards
Karl
A recap of the European workshop on software ecosystems 2018
The workshop was held within two sessions of the second day of the First European Platform Economy Summit in Berlin. The first session was a workshop called “New Ecosystem Opportunities & 'White space' Opportunities in Software and High-Tech“ and the second session was a panel about “Network Effects, Data Effects & AI - Keys to the castle“ moderated by Slinger Jansen. You can find more details on both sessions below.
What made this workshop successful were the discussions about the presentations but also the interactions in breaks and during lunch. A big thank you goes out to all presenters, helpers and participants!
Session one: New Ecosystem Opportunities & 'White space' Opportunities in Software and High-Tech
This design-thinking based workshop featured three short motivating presentations by Peter Buxmann, Sebastien Dupre and Thomas Curran followed by topic-based, hands-on workshops.
Thomas captured the audience by describing his recent success with creating new cloud based ecosystems for digital business in the financial industry. In a traditionally closed industry, what do you do to turn a company into a digital, open platform? Thomas had done just that in a three year project and talked about how to do that successfully.
Peter reported about several studies on the value of data and the importance of privacy. He provided insights into challenges and success factors for software platform providers regarding the value of customer data, customer privacy and tradeoffs between data privacy and data farming by platform providers.
Sebastien showed how Uberization in field service management works by engaging a crowd of service technicians inside and outside of companies. He explained how companies can build an ecosystem connecting field service technicians, partners, own employees and customers to scale their field service operations, increase revenue and provide unmatched customer experience.
Then we split the crowd of thirty people into three teams that worked together and discussed with the help of the moderators and our design thinking coach Olaf Mackert. First, we ran an introduction game called two truths and one lie, which created a lot of laughter and made everybody ready to work together trustfully.
Then everybody dumped his ideas, questions, issues he or she wanted to discuss on post-its, which were clustered into topics by the moderator. Then the teams voted on the topic to start with. The discussions went on in five minute slots. The team voted on either continuing the discussions on the topic or going to the next topic after each slot.
Thomas Curran´s team, which was the largest team, focused on the technical aspects of creating a platform and technology selection. They had lively and productive discussions leveraging the joint wisdom of the team.
Sebastien´s team of ten discussed topics around uberization of any industry and about changes in strategies for field service management.
Peter Buxmann´s team was a diverse team made up of members from venture capital, manufacturing, public administration which made discussions very interesting based on the different views. The team addressed question around motivations of people to share data, ways to create value from data and also around data protection impact on data-driven business models.
The results of each team will be provided in a short writeup from the moderator.
Session TWO: Network Effects, Data Effects & AI - Keys to the castle
John Rethans, head of Digital Transformation Strategy from Apigee/Google, brought everybody on the same page regarding APIs - what they are and what it means to implement an API driven strategy and technology.
Slinger Jansen from Utrecht University opened the panel with a short presentation about his research. The panel´s focus was on pragmatic aspects of creating successful API platforms. It covered questions like “What is the role of APIs for platforms? How do you build API-based platforms? What are the success factors and pitfalls when building API-based platforms? How to explain their power to non-technical executives and shareholders?”
In addition to Slinger and John, the panel featured the following speakers:
Nik Willetts - President & CEO, TM Forum
Andreas von Oettingen - MD of Factor10
Program of the European workshop on software ecosystems as part of the Platform Economy Summit
The European Workshop on software ecosystems will be held as part of the Platform Economy Summit in Berlin, we will have two sessions on the second day of the European Platform Economy summit.
November 21st
11:15am Challenges and success factors for creating digital platforms
14:30 Network Effects & APIs: Their role in driving platform value
The first session is called “Challenges and success factors for creating digital platforms”, moderated by me: Insights from studies, real life projects and Uberization“ and will feature three short motivating presentations by Peter Buxmann, Thomas Curran and Sebastien Dupre followed by topic-bases workshops.
Peter Buxmann, Head of Software & Digital Business Group at Technical University of Darmstadt, will present the topic “Data Economy, Platforms, and Privacy: Insights from multiple empirical studies“. He will provide insights into challenges and success factors for software platform providers regarding the value of customer data, customer privacy and tradeoffs between data privacy and data farming by platform providers.
Thomas Curran will present the transformation of a financial industry heavyweight to becoming an open, digital platform. In a traditionally closed industry, what do you do to turn a company into a digital, open platform. Thomas has done just that in a three year project and will talk about how to do that successfully.
Sebastien Dupre from Coresystems (now SAP) will present the topic “Uberization of field service: a software platform for crowdsourcing service technicians and show how companies can build an ecosystem connecting field service technicians, partners, own employees and customers to scale their field service operations, increase revenue and provide unmatched customer experience.
The second session in the afternoon is called “Network Effects & APIs: Their role in driving platform value “ and will be moderated by Slinger Jansen - Software Ecosystems Research Lab, Utrecht University. It will focus on questions like “What is the role of APIs for platforms? How do you build API-based platforms? What are the success factors and pitfalls when building API-based platforms? How to explain their power to non-technical executives and shareholders?”
The session will start with a short introduction about APIs in general by John Nethans from Google. Then Slinger will present the essence of latest research on API approaches. After that, the panel will focus on pragmatic aspects of creating successful API platforms. After a short while, the panel will open up and take questions from the audience.
This session will feature the following speakers:
Slinger Jansen - Software Ecosystems Research Lab, Utrecht University
John Rethans - Head of Digital Transformation Strategy, Apigee, Google
Nik Willetts - President & CEO, TM Forum
Andreas von Oettingen - CTO Factor10
This session will start with short statements from the panel and will transition to a discussion with questions from the audience.
hope to see you there. please make use of discounted tickets as of below.
Dr. Karl Popp
Join now and you get a special 15% discount off the booking fee. Just quote the discount VIP Code: FKN2652EWOSEL to claim your discount.
For more information or to register for the Platform Economy Summit Europe, please contact the KNect365 team on: Tel: +44 (0) 20 3377 3279 | Email: gf-registrations@knect365.com | Register here.
Remember to quote the VIP code: FKN2652EWOSEL to claim your 15% discount.
Digitalization of M&A processes: Advantages of an end-to-end, unified platform
REQUIREMENT: A UNIFIED DATA LAKE FOR ALL DEALS.
An end-to-end, unified platform builds the foundation of M&A success. End-to-end means that the platform covers all phases of the M&A process from early strategizing to deal sourcing to due diligence, signing, closing and integration. All data are combined to one single source of truth, no data are lost between phases, better and well documented handovers are possible between phases.
Unified platform means no more jumping between different solutions and tools. t eases the pain of processing massive amounts of data, be it the data room or planning data for integration planning. For due diligence, this includes combining collaborative due diligence management with virtual data room capabilities.
While there are many advantages of such a platform, let´s just look at three key advantages.
Advantage 1: A unified data lake for all deals
The data lake covers all process phases and all deals allowing e.g. cross-deal analytics, large training sets for machine learning, proposals of next steps based on best practices from all deals. The data lake contains massive amounts of information, but all information used in the process, information about the process steps and decisions taken is stored in one place.
The load of information in M&A processes is already overwhelming? So how can i leverage this large amount of data? Modern information system technologies like predictive analytics, finding outliers within data, semantic analytics and forensic tool to analyse and navigate large data sets as well as providing the right information for your current work context will enable you to leverage the data collected.
Advantage 2: Better decision are being taken and documented
There are two aspects of this advantage: decision journey and augmentation. For each decision taken, you can always recall the decision journey. How was the decision prepared, who took it, what were the consequences, were the goals of the decision reached?
The second aspect is augmentation of decision tasks: if you are the decision maker, augmentation provides you with similar decision taken in other deals including their impact on results in the integration phase, so you can make the best decision. The augmentation in the deal sourcing phase e.g. includes market data, financial data about all targets and predictive analytics about the future success of the target companies.
Advantage 3: Less documentation and reporting: More productivity
Massively increased productivity and less errors due to robotic process automation. No more learning of process models, they will naturally be followed. No more thinking about what the next step is or what your project status is, all information is augmented in your usual workplace. Reporting annoys you? The platform will autmatically propose the content for the next status update, so you spend less hours on reporting, more on quality work and problem solving.
Outlook: where´s the platform?
So, now we know some of the advantages of the platform: one question remains: is the platform your work environment and do you have to learn a completely new work environment that does not naturally integrate with all the other productivity tools that you are using: email, teleconferencing etc.? The platform i envision will be invisible, you will work in your usual work environment, e.g. using a Windows tablet with Outlook and other tools you know. the platform will track your work and augment inforrmation as you work, no separate login, no missing integrations that get on your nerves.
If you liked this article, you will like my book about due diligence.
Let us cover the final frontier of digitalization: M&A processes!
REQUIREMENT: MASSIVE DIGITALIZATION OF THE M&A PROCESS.
While many business processes are automated, use big data analytics and digital assistants, we seem to run M&A processes like it is 1999. Imagining what is possible today, we are on the verge of disruption in M&A.
What is needed?
Here is the list of requirements to massively digitize the M&A process:
end-to-end process support from early phases to end of the integration project,
Digital learning for M&A knowledge,
Semantic analysis of available data of acquirer and target and then leverage the semantic data to navigate the data via assistive technologies, like automatic analysis of legal documents,
assistive technologies like chatbots, robotic process automation and digital assistants that help managers watch risks, ask the right questions and propose proper next steps,
big data analytics: data rooms are a large data set, so why dig through it manually?,
Use of forensic technologies for understanding and investigating data room content
Automate IT due diligence by using scanners for analysis of networks, applications and interfaces,
Automatically analyse content of existing ERP systems for due diligence, merger integration and migration of ERP systems.
What is already digital?
Learning: see PMI2GO: digital online learning for post merger integration
Data rooms: Trusted file stores for due diligence are digital. But is file store digitalization driven far enough? No. Not yet.
Process digitalization: There are M&A process tools that allow partial automation of management tasks. But do we get digitalization with chatbots, assistive technology based on machine learning? No. Not yet.
The opportunities are massive but are not yet leveraged. I think the M&A community has to provide guidance to vendors to achieve a vision i call the Digital M&A Manifesto. Stay tuned for more details.