Understanding Contemporary Platforms

In this three-part series, I’ll look at a term that we’ve all heard with increasing regularity over the past five years: the platform. Today I’ll provide an overview of the modern-day platform with a particular emphasis on Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google—aka, the Gang of Four. In the second post, I’ll discuss the data that today’s powerful platforms generate. In the final installment, I’ll provide some data-management advice related to platforms.

By way of background, in 2011 I wrote The Age of the Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Have Redefined Business. The book looks at the ascension of four consumer-oriented companies, and I’m hardly the only one who has noticed them. For instance, Google Chairman of the Board Eric Schmidt has often complimented the Gang of Four’s ability to build sticky and innovative platforms. In fact, these companies rule the tech world. That is, they have built the tools that enable others to create apps, games, and services on top of those platforms. (In the book, I refer to these as planks.)

It’s critical to note that I love the companies, but do you know anyone who’s developed an app or a game for them? Neither have I. In this sense, neither company is a true platform.