Platform Strategy for Business

Firms such as Apple, Alibaba, Facebook, SalesForce, Uber and Yelp operate platform ecosystems that match buyers and sellers, gain value and market share from network effects, and harness their users to innovate.

This course teaches you how to convert products to platforms and how to innovate in a platform environment. You will learn how to negotiate platform startup, convert existing products to platforms, and make vital decisions on issues of openness, cannibalization, and competition.

Learners in this course will solve real-life problems using concepts from two sided networks, information asymmetry, pricing, intellectual property, and game theory.

The instructor for this course literally wrote the book on the topic: " Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy --and How to Make Them Work for You. "

This course is part of both the Digital Leadership and Product Management MicroMasters programs.

• How to successfully launch and design a business platform
• Why platform firms beat product firms and how the structure of platform firms is fundamentally different
• Why traditional platform pricing models fail and how to choose a successful pricing model
• How to compete in winner-take-all network markets.

Week 1: Foundations

What's happening in the economy. Why platform firms are fundamentally different than product firms.

Week 2: Architecture

Components of and design principles of successful platforms.

Week 3: Launch

Strategies for solving the chicken-or-egg problem and how to gain critical mass.

Week 4: Monetization

Why pricing is different in platform markets and how to choose price.

Week 5: Open vs Closed

How Steve Jobs got it wrong the 1st time. How to choose what to give away and what to keep.

Week 6: Strategy

Why product strategies fail for platforms and how to compete in a network market.