Platform Digest — 21.04

👋 On time for your weekend: a weekly round-up of stories at the intersection of #ecosystems, #platforms, #society and #business that stood out.

What are platform businesses?

[..] there are many different definitions of platforms floating around. And many commentators use the term “platform” in a very loose way without really defining what they mean. Furthermore, these days, almost every other SaaS firm describes themselves as a platform, perhaps in order to make their competitive positioning and prospects look more appealing to investors.

👩🏻‍🏫 Back to first principles: direct interactions & affiliated customers—Platform Chronicles

How Shopify became the new retail empire:

For a decade, Shopify has been slowly growing, describing itself as a quiet no-nonsense back-end tool to help merchants grow their businesses. And over the last year it became an empire [..] Shopify is the default”

🎢 Slowly at first, then all at once—ModernRetail

The Scary Future of Instagram:

🚧 In China, WeChat limited the number of ads one person can see: 2-3 ads/day compared to 10,000 ads/day for westerners. Ironically, ads are converting more... 💰 Signal has an entirely different revenue stream: operating solely on donations. It works because they're offering the best messaging experience when others can't... due to ads, tracking, and privacy.

🧐 Or rather, the Scary Future of Silicon Valley?—growth.design

👷🏻‍♀️👷🏻‍♂️Our Work

A short keynote on embedded finance—video and the full event.

This week's roundup of stories at the intersection of #technology, #business, #design and #organisation. Makes for a nice companion to this digest.

📬 Suggestions?

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