EdX

Platform Strategy for Business (edX)

Offered by Boston University, BUx,

Learn how to design, launch, monetize and compete in a networked platform market. Firms such as Apple, Alibaba, Facebook, SalesForce, Uber and Yelp operate as 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 generate platform innovation. You will learn how to negotiate platform startup, convert existing businesses, and make vital decisions on issues of openness, cannibalization, and competition.

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You will discover how to apply concepts from two sided networks, information asymmetry, pricing, intellectual property, and game theory to real problems.

This course is taught by the instructor who literally wrote the book on this topic, “Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy—and How to Make Them Work for You.”
This course is part of the Digital Transformation Leadership MicroMasters Program.

What you'll learn

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

Course Syllabus

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.

Go to Class

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