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Marketplaces are not Platforms
Today we return to one of my favourite technical topics : building technical platforms. Since I started writing on this topic since early last year, I have spoken to a lot of confused product managers who didn’t quite get what I was talking about, and had a completely different mental model of a platform. I have also met a lot of developers who say “we are building a platform for X or Y or Z” when they really are building a product for X or Y or Z. This has now become a bit of a pet-peeve of mine, so I want to take another shot at clarifying matters. This post is going to sound a little rant-y.
Quick thought experiment — When you hear the word “platform”, what is the first thing that comes to your mind. Other than railway platforms.
For most people, likely it is Amazon, Uber, AirBnb, Doordash or something on these lines. What is common to all of these — they are all two or more sided marketplaces. What else is common among them — NONE of them are platforms.
Before the outrage begins, let’s consider definitions.
