Making sense of the platform economy

JUST a few decades ago, businesses operated very differently.

Back then, the business models that reigned supreme worked in a "pipeline" - a product or service is created on one end, and customers receive it on the other. While this model thrived for a long time because of our exponential ability (and the necessity) to manufacture and sell at scale, companies are now seeing new growth with a model that changes the way we do business with our customers.

This new model is based on the creation of online platforms which create and facilitate interactions with customers. Imagine the physical marketplaces, shopping malls and exhibition halls all around us, but revamped for the modern, online consumer. Instead of physical infrastructures, platform-led companies develop and curate digital spaces in which a number of merchants and buyers can not only have increased visibility, but additional chances of connecting and collaborating with one another. And, whether we realise it or not, this way of doing business is already a part of our everyday lives.